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Updated: May 21, 2026

Induction of an Isoelectric Brain State to Investigate the Impact of Endogenous Synaptic Activity on Neuronal Excitability In Vivo
Published on: March 31, 2016
Activity-dependent energy budget for neocortical signaling: effect of short-term synaptic plasticity on the energy
Mauro DiNuzzo1, Federico Giove
1MARBILab, Museo storico della fisica e Centro di studi e ricerche "Enrico Fermi," Rome, Italy. mauro.dinuzzo@roma1.infn.it
Abstract:
The available estimate of the energy expended for signaling in rat neocortex is refined to examine the separate contribution of spiking and synaptic activity as a function of average neuronal firing rate. By taking into account a phenomenological model of short-term synaptic plasticity, we show that the transition from low to high cortical activity is accompanied by a substantial increase in relative energy consumed by action potentials vs. synaptic potentials. This consideration might be important for a deeper understanding of how information is represented in the cortex and which metabolic pathways are upregulated to sustain cortical activity.
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