New international initiative explores how energy shapes brain function

Professor Tim Vogels from the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) will receive $3 million as part of an ambitious new $80 million international research initiative exploring how energy shapes brain function. Contributing his expertise in computational neuroscience to the 10-year collaboration launched by the New York-based Simons Foundation, Vogels will develop computer models to investigate how the brain's energy supply affects its ability to process information and learn.

The human brain is a master of energy management. It runs on about 20 watts, roughly the power of a dim light bulb, yet scientists still don't fully understand how it receives, distributes and uses that energy. How does the brain balance its energy needs in times of high demand, or when it's at rest?

This is where the new Simons Collaboration on Brain Energetics (SCOBE) comes in.

Led by Thomas Clandinin at Stanford University, the initiative brings together 26 investigators from the United States, Austria, Great Britain and Norway. Its aim is to understand how energy availability shapes brain function, from individual cells to complex neural networks and behavior. In the long run, the collaboration hopes to help answer fundamental questions about how the brain processes information, the origins of developmental brain disorders and even aging.

Bridging energy & brain activity

Munich-born Vogels is known for co-developing one of the first theories of how the brain's inhibitory connections learn. More recently, he turned to the brain's energy budget, proposing that neurons burn off surplus energy by raising their own activity to protect themselves from harmful by-products of a slow metabolism.

It's this work that led to the invitation to join SCOBE, where the Vogels group at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) will contribute to three of four defined research areas, helping build a shared understanding of energy metabolism across the brain's cell types and clarify how cell metabolism and neural activity rely on each other.

Specifically, Vogels and his team will develop computational models linking energy metabolism in mitochondria, the cell's powerhouse, with neuronal activity. These models will serve as test beds for experiments by other researchers in the SCOBE collaboration.

Building on this initial work, the Vogels group, along with groups at Stanford, the Allen Institute and the University of Oslo, will develop models of larger networks of neurons and how they work together. Drawing on experimental findings from across the collaboration, the researchers aim to understand how energy demands influence learning.

"How much energy does it cost to make a memory?" says Chaitanya Chintaluri, a senior researcher in the Vogels group. "How much does it cost to think but also to rest, and even to dream? And if it's expensive, why do we dream?"

When energy runs low – or too high

Another focus of SCOBE is how the brain adapts to changes in energy availability, including periods of metabolic stress.

The amount of energy available to the brain can fluctuate for various reasons, including chronic conditions such as diabetes, reduced oxygen levels or pregnancy. Researchers will investigate how the brain maintains its functions when energy is scarce or in excess, and what happens when protective mechanisms fail.

Using data from collaborators in this research area, the Vogels group will develop computational models linking energy supply and demand. In particular, the team will explore how neurons and glia respond to short-term changes in energy metabolites.

Putting computational expertise to work

SCOBE brings together experts in neuroscience, cellular and molecular biology, as well as engineering and theory. Its research will span different species and scales, tied together by the computational approaches contributed by the Vogels group and fellow theorists across the collaboration.

"Not a lot of past research into brain energetics has taken a theoretical or computational approach, so I'm optimistic about what we will learn by applying advanced modeling techniques to integrate diverse data types," says Hannah Bayer, senior scientific officer in neuroscience collaborations at the Simons Foundation.

Source:

Institute of Science and Technology Austria