ArticlePLoS biology2007
Fly photoreceptors demonstrate energy-information trade-offs in neural coding.
Article in PLoS biology, 2007. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 108 papers.
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Who cites it
108 citing papers in PubMed, 275 citations in OpenAlex.
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- Bridging glucose metabolism and intrinsic functional organization of the human cortex.Communications biology · 2026Article
- Sub-picojoule-per-bit volitional neuromorphic devices for precise targeting and tracking.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Analysis of inductance-like effects of delayed rectifiers: amplification of voltage response onset, acceleration of decay, and voltage- and kinetics-dependent limitations.Journal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology · 2025Article
- Shorter-duration escapes driven byProceedings. Biological sciences · 2025Article
- How energy determines spatial localisation and copy number of molecules in neurons.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Brain energy metabolism as an underlying basis of slow and fast cognitive phenotypes in honeybees.The Journal of experimental biology · 2024Article
- Article
- Evolution of compound eye morphology underlies differences in vision between closely related Drosophila species.BMC biology · 2024Article
- Multiple axes of visual system diversity in Ithomiini, an ecologically diverse tribe of mimetic butterflies.The Journal of experimental biology · 2023Article
- Photobehaviours guided by simple photoreceptor systems.Animal cognition · 2023Review
- Do Place Cells Dream of Deceptive Moves in a Signaling Game?Neuroscience · 2023Review
- Homeostatic regulation of neuronal function: importance of degeneracy and pleiotropy.Frontiers in cellular neuroscience · 2023Review
- Simple and complex, sexually dimorphic retinal mosaic of fritillary butterflies.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2022Article
- Reintegrating Biology Through the Nexus of Energy, Information, and Matter.Integrative and comparative biology · 2022Article
- Mitochondrial Retinopathies.International journal of molecular sciences · 2021Review
- The finely defined shift work schedule of dung beetles and their eye morphology.Ecology and evolution · 2021Article
- Temporal vision: measures, mechanisms and meaning.The Journal of experimental biology · 2021Article
48 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Trade-offs between energy consumption and neuronal performance must shape the design and evolution of nervous systems, but we lack empirical data showing how neuronal energy costs vary according to performance. Using intracellular recordings from the intact retinas of four flies, Drosophila melanogaster, D. virilis, Calliphora vicina, and Sarcophaga carnaria, we measured the rates at which homologous R1-6 photoreceptors of these species transmit information from the same stimuli and estimated the energy they consumed. In all species, both information rate and energy consumption increase with light intensity. Energy consumption rises from a baseline, the energy required to maintain the dark resting potential. This substantial fixed cost, approximately 20% of a photoreceptor's maximum consumption, causes the unit cost of information (ATP molecules hydrolysed per bit) to fall as information rate increases. The highest information rates, achieved at bright daylight levels, differed according to species, from approximately 200 bits s(-1) in D. melanogaster to approximately 1,000 bits s(-1) in S. carnaria. Comparing species, the fixed cost, the total cost of signalling, and the unit cost (cost per bit) all increase with a photoreceptor's highest information rate to make information more expensive in higher performance cells. This law of diminishing returns promotes the evolution of economical structures by severely penalising overcapacity. Similar relationships could influence the function and design of many neurons because they are subject to similar biophysical constraints on information throughput.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.