The thermodynamics of thinking: connections between neural activity, energy metabolism and blood flow.

ABSTRACT: Several current functional neuroimaging methods are sensitive to cerebral metabolism and cerebral blood flow (CBF) rather than the underlying neural activity itself. Empirically, the connections between metabolism, flow and neural activity are complex and somewhat counterintuitive: CBF and glycolysis increase more than seems to be needed to provide oxygen and pyruvate for oxidative metabolism, and the oxygen extraction fraction is relatively low in the brain and decreases when oxygen metabolism increases. This work lays a foundation for the idea that this unexpected pattern of physiological changes is consistent with basic thermodynamic considerations related to metabolism. In the context of this thermodynamic framework, the apparent mismatches in metabolic rates and CBF are related

SUBMITTER: Buxton RB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7741033 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature