Synaptic energy use and supply.

By Julia J. Harris, Renaud B. Jolivet, David Attwell. Neuron, 2012

1,554 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Neuronal computation is energetically expensive. Consequently, the brain's limited energy supply imposes constraints on its information processing capability. Most brain energy is used on synaptic transmission, making it important to understand how energy is provided to and used by synapses. We describe how information transmission through presynaptic terminals and postsynaptic spines is related to their energy consumption, assess which mechanisms normally ensure an adequate supply of ATP to these structures, consider the influence of synaptic plasticity and changing brain state on synaptic energy use, and explain how disruption of the energy supply to synapses leads to neuropathology.

Subfields: Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience, Cognitive Neuroscience, Electrical and Electronic Engineering

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/1b3390dd07d6f53df3262f81c709649be2bfea64

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In Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience

In Cognitive Neuroscience

In Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Citations in the corpus

The energy cost of action potential propagation in dopamine neurons: clues to susceptibility in Parkinson's disease (2013, background): “…axonal architecture will put SNc dopamine neurons under a high energy demand, not just to maintain normal cell biological functions, but principally in the maintenance of the resting membrane potential, the propagation of action potentials (AP) and in synaptic transmission (Harris et al., 2012).”
A cellular perspective on brain energy metabolism and functional imaging. (2015, background): “As a first approximation, it appears that neurons consume 75%–80% of the energy produced whereas the rest is used for glia-based processes (Harris et al., 2012; Hyder et al., 2013).”
Presynaptic stochasticity improves energy efficiency and helps alleviate the stability-plasticity dilemma (2021, background): “This approach has proven fruitful to explain synaptic failures (Levy and Baxter, 2002; Harris et al., 2012), low average firing rates (Levy and Baxter, 1996) as well as excitationinhibition balance (Sengupta et al.”
The theory of constructed emotion: an active inference account of interoception and categorization (2017, positive): “…are thought to function as prediction signals (also known as ‘top-down’ or ‘feedback’ signals, and more recently as ‘forward’ models) that continuously anticipate events in the sensory environment.10 6 Long-range neural connections, like those that form the human brain’s broadly distributed…”
13 reasons why the brain is susceptible to oxidative stress (2018, background): “ATP to maintain ionic gradients and support synaptic activity [103,104].”
Sugar for the brain: the role of glucose in physiological and pathological brain function (2013, background): “The largest proportion of energy in the brain is consumed for neuronal computation and information processing [3], e.”
Transcriptome-scale spatial gene expression in the human dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (2020, result): “This likely relates to our finding that L1 was most enriched for ‘neuropil spots’, and a higher energetic supply to axons and dendrites would be expected (Harris et al., 2012; Overly et al., 1996).”
Activity-driven local ATP synthesis is required for synaptic function (2014, neutral): “The development of Syn-ATP has allowed us to probe several important aspects of the regulation and consumption of ATP in nerve terminals as we demonstrate: (1) activity contributes significantly to ATP consumption; (2) activity stimulates ATP synthesis; (3) the synaptic vesicle cycle presents a larg”
Brain metabolism in health, aging, and neurodegeneration (2017, positive): “Accordingly, when the ability of neurons to generate sufficient ATP is compromised (e.g. aging, ischemia, and neurodegenerative disorders), synapses are vulnerable to dysfunction and degeneration (Harris et al, 2012) (Fig 4).”
The pathobiology of vascular dementia (2013, positive): “Most energy is used by neurons to fuel ionic pumps to maintain and restore the ionic gradients dissipated by synaptic activity (Harris et al., 2012).”
Mechanisms and Controversies of tACS (Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation) (2024, background): “Electrical activity of neurons is a major energy consumer of the resting brain (Harris et al., 2012).”