Neural Computation, Vol 8, 531-543, Copyright © 1996 by The MIT Press

ARTICLES

Energy efficient neural codes

WB Levy and RA Baxter
Department of Neurosurgery, University of Virginia, Charlottesville 22908, USA.

In 1969 Barlow introduced the phrase "economy of impulses" to express the tendency for successive neural systems to use lower and lower levels of cell firings to produce equivalent encodings. From this viewpoint, the ultimate economy of impulses is a neural code of minimal redundancy. The hypothesis motivating our research is that energy expenditures, e.g., the metabolic cost of recovering from an action potential relative to the cost of inactivity, should also be factored into the economy of impulses. In fact, coding schemes with the largest representational capacity are not, in general, optimal when energy expenditures are taken into account. We show that for both binary and analog neurons, increased energy expenditure per neuron implies a decrease in average firing rate if energy efficient information transmission is to be maintained.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				J. E. Niven and S. B. Laughlin Energy limitation as a selective pressure on the evolution of sensory systems J. Exp. Biol., June 1, 2008; 211(11): 1792 - 1804. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				B. G. Borghuis, C. P. Ratliff, R. G. Smith, P. Sterling, and V. Balasubramanian Design of a Neuronal Array J. Neurosci., March 19, 2008; 28(12): 3178 - 3189. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				D. H. Goldberg and A. G. Andreou Distortion of Neural Signals by Spike Coding Neural Comput., October 1, 2007; 19(10): 2797 - 2839. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				J. C. Nawroth, C. A. Greer, W. R. Chen, S. B. Laughlin, and G. M. Shepherd An Energy Budget for the Olfactory Glomerulus J. Neurosci., September 5, 2007; 27(36): 9790 - 9800. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				S.-C. Yen, J. Baker, and C. M. Gray Heterogeneity in the Responses of Adjacent Neurons to Natural Stimuli in Cat Striate Cortex J Neurophysiol, February 1, 2007; 97(2): 1326 - 1341. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				P. Crotty, T. Sangrey, and W. B Levy Metabolic Energy Cost of Action Potential Velocity J Neurophysiol, September 1, 2006; 96(3): 1237 - 1246. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				D. B. Rubin and T. A. Cleland Dynamical Mechanisms of Odor Processing in Olfactory Bulb Mitral Cells J Neurophysiol, August 1, 2006; 96(2): 555 - 568. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				H. Asari, B. A. Pearlmutter, and A. M. Zador Sparse representations for the cocktail party problem. J. Neurosci., July 12, 2006; 26(28): 7477 - 7490. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				A. Grunewald and E. K. Skoumbourdis The Integration of Multiple Stimulus Features by V1 Neurons J. Neurosci., October 13, 2004; 24(41): 9185 - 9194. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				A. Shah, A. H. Fagg, and A. G. Barto Cortical Involvement in the Recruitment of Wrist Muscles J Neurophysiol, June 1, 2004; 91(6): 2445 - 2456. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				T. D. Sangrey, W. O. Friesen, and W. B Levy Analysis of the Optimal Channel Density of the Squid Giant Axon Using a Reparameterized Hodgkin-Huxley Model J Neurophysiol, June 1, 2004; 91(6): 2541 - 2550. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				S. B. Laughlin and T. J. Sejnowski Communication in Neuronal Networks Science, September 26, 2003; 301(5641): 1870 - 1874. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				M. Bethge, D. Rotermund, and K. Pawelzik Optimal Short-Term Population Coding: When Fisher Information Fails Neural Comput., October 1, 2002; 14(10): 2317 - 2351. [Abstract] [Full Text]

				S. Schreiber, C. K. Machens, A. V. M. Herz, and S. B. Laughlin Energy-Efficient Coding with Discrete Stochastic Events Neural Comput., June 1, 2002; 14(6): 1323 - 1346. [Abstract] [Full Text]

				W. B Levy and R. A. Baxter Energy-Efficient Neuronal Computation via Quantal Synaptic Failures J. Neurosci., June 1, 2002; 22(11): 4746 - 4755. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				A. Gottschalk Derivation of the Visual Contrast Response Function by Maximizing Information Rate Neural Comput., March 1, 2002; 14(3): 527 - 542. [Abstract] [Full Text]

				M. S. Goldman, P. Maldonado, and L. F. Abbott Redundancy Reduction and Sustained Firing with Stochastic Depressing Synapses J. Neurosci., January 15, 2002; 22(2): 584 - 591. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				S. D. Wilke and C. W. Eurich Representational Accuracy of Stochastic Neural Populations Neural Comput., January 1, 2002; 14(1): 155 - 189. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				V. Balasubramanian, D. Kimber, and M. J. Berry II Metabolically Efficient Information Processing Neural Comput., April 1, 2001; 13(4): 799 - 815. [Abstract] [Full Text]

				G. Settanni and A. Treves Analytical Model for the Effects of Learning on Spike Count Distributions Neural Comput., August 1, 2000; 12(8): 1773 - 1787. [Abstract] [Full Text]

				W. E. Vinje and J. L. Gallant Sparse Coding and Decorrelation in Primary Visual Cortex During Natural Vision Science, February 18, 2000; 287(5456): 1273 - 1276. [Abstract] [Full Text]