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#spike

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Laurent Perrinet

The remarkable energy efficiency of the Human brain: One #Spike Every 6 Seconds !

In the groundbreaking paper "The Cost of Cortical Computation" published in 2003 in Current Biology, neuroscientist Peter Lennie reached a stunning conclusion about neural activity in the human brain: the average firing rate of cortical neurons is approximately 0.16 Hz—equivalent to just one spike every 6 seconds.

This finding challenges conventional assumptions about neural activity and reveals the extraordinary energy efficiency of the brain's computational strategy. Unconventional? Ask a LLM about it, and it will rather point to a baseline frequency between 0.1Hz and 10Hz. Pretty high and vague, right? But how did Lennie arrive at this remarkable figure?

The Calculation Behind the 0.16 Hz Baseline Rate

Lennie's analysis combines several critical factors:

1. Energy Constraints Analysis

Starting with the brain's known energy consumption (approximately 20% of the body's entire energy budget despite being only 2% of body weight), Lennie worked backward to determine how many action potentials this energy could reasonably support.

2. Precise Metabolic Costs

His calculations incorporated detailed metabolic requirements:

  • Each action potential consumes approximately 3.84 × 109 ATP molecules
  • The human brain uses about 5.7 × 1021 ATP molecules daily

3. Neural Architecture

The analysis factored in essential neuroanatomical data:

  • The human cerebral cortex contains roughly 1010 neurons
  • Each neuron forms approximately 104 synaptic connections

4. Metabolic Distribution

Using cerebral glucose utilization measurements from PET studies, Lennie accounted for energy allocation across different neural processes:

  • Maintaining resting membrane potentials
  • Generating action potentials
  • Powering synaptic transmission

By synthesizing these factors and dividing the available energy budget by the number of neurons and the energy cost per spike, Lennie calculated that cortical neurons can only sustain an average firing rate of approximately 0.16 Hz while remaining within the brain's metabolic constraints.

Implications for Neural Coding

This extremely low firing rate has profound implications for our understanding of neural computation. It suggests that:

  1. Neural coding must be remarkably sparse — information in the brain is likely represented by the activity of relatively few neurons at any given moment
  2. Energy efficiency has shaped brain evolution — metabolic constraints have driven the development of computational strategies that maximize information processing while minimizing energy use
  3. Low baseline rates enable selective amplification — this sparse background activity creates a context where meaningful signals can be effectively amplified

The brain's solution to energy constraints reveals an elegant approach to computation: doing more with less through strategic sparsity rather than constant activity.

This perspective on neural efficiency continues to influence our understanding of brain function and inspires energy-efficient approaches to #ArtificialNeuralNetworks and #neuromorphic computing.

Auscandoc

“The candidate, MPV/S-2P, uses a live-weakened version of a virus called murine pneumonia virus (MPV), which does not cause disease in humans.

MPV will deliver a stabilized version of the #spike protein, which the #SARSCoV2 virus, that causes #COVID19, uses to attach and infect human cells. This will teach the body to recognize the protein and train immune cells to attack if a person is infected.” #vaccine #COVIDvaccine #nasal bird.makeup/users/meetjess/sta

bird.makeupJessWhat to know about the next generation of COVID-19 vaccines Researchers believe the nasal vaccine may be more effective than current shots. https://abcnews.go.com/Health/clinical-trial-begins-generation-nasal-covid-19-vaccine/story?id=111605093
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Chuck Darwin

What’s fueling the return of supersonic passenger flights

There hasn’t been a commercial #supersonic #passenger #jet since the Concorde stopped flying in 2003.

Since then, supersonic jets — which travel faster than the speed of sound — have been used primarily by the military.

But the space agency’s unveiling of the X-59, designed and built in partnership with Lockheed Martin, comes as a growing number of private companies are vying to bring back supersonic travel for the commercial market

#Boom, #Exosonic and #Spike are among the companies promising modern supersonic travel that will be quieter, greener and more affordable than in the past.

And at least one company — #Hermeus — is exploring hypersonic flights, which would whisk passengers from New York to London in 90 minutes.

But there are questions about whether these companies can make good on their claims given the economics of air travel and growing concerns about the impact of commercial aviation on the environment.

washingtonpost.com/business/20

Washington Post · See what’s fueling the return of supersonic passenger flightsMore than two decades after the Concorde’s last flight, here are five things to know about the effort to revive supersonic travel.
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stop genocide punch nazis

Because I'm a sad burned out nerd I ranted about the meaning drift of #spike on... youtube comments today.

Someone referred to "vertical slicing" and I could not resist:

"That's a spike. Or at least it used to be."

Then I went off on a rant about early #agile terms and today's mess.

EDIT: Youtube ate my origjnal rant, but the substance is to be found below.

👇

Auscandoc

“By analyzing a longitudinal cohort of individuals infected with #SARSCoV2 during the first wave of #pandemic infections, Cai et al. found that subsequent #vaccination against #COVID19 enhanced the frequency and functional qualities of #spike-specific #Tcells. Despite up-regulation of inhibitory receptors, spike-specific T cells produced more effector #cytokines and cytotoxic molecules after #vaccination” mstdn.social/@erictopol/111546

Mastodon 🐘Eric Topol (@erictopol@mstdn.social)Vaccination after Covid does not lead to T cell exhaustion—it invigorates T cell functionality https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciimmunol.adh0687
Auscandoc

“We have not seen a new #variant with this many new #spike mutations happening all at once since the emergence of the original #Omicron,” Bloom told NBC News. “Based on the sequence, I think we can be very confident this [variant] is going to be relatively good at evading the #antibodies that most people have from prior #infections and #vaccinations.” universeodon.com/@popsci/11092

Universeodon Social MediaPopular Science (@popsci@universeodon.com)The last time a variant had this many mutations was when Omicron appeared. https://t.co/dUwWZ6XK60
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beSpacific

"#Startups and other companies trying to capitalize on the #ArtificialIntelligence #boom sparked by #OpenAI are running into a problem: They can’t find enough specialized computers to make their own #AISoftware.
A #spike in #demand for #ServerChips that can train and run #machinelearning #software has caused a #shortage, prompting major #CloudServer providers including #AmazonWebServices, #Microsoft, #Google & #Oracle to limit their availability for customers." theinformation.com/articles/ai

The InformationAI Developers Stymied by Server Shortage at AWS, Microsoft, GoogleBy Aaron Holmes
Dan Seitz

So, an #introduction...

I'm a freelance writer with an interest in tech. Over the years I've largely written about gaming, nerd pop culture, comics, and pop science. You might have seen me on #PopularScience, #LifeWire, #Spike, #Cracked, and a lot more; My article count sits somewhere over >gulp< 5,000 pieces.

In my spare time I game (just put twenty hours in to #Outriders), ride a bike for health and to get outdoors, #juggle, enjoy craft beer, perform the occasional cooking experiment and read quite a bit. My #goodreads is here goodreads.com/user/show/108421

And I have a dog and a cat.

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