Scientists have discovered that our brain consumes up to 10 times more energy than the rest of our body, even while at rest. Our brain will eat up 20% of our body’s fuel production as a baseline rate.
It is known that even comatose patients, referred to as “brain dead”, consume only 2-3 times less brain energy than healthy people.
This one biological fact has confounded neuroscientists for many years. How can a relatively inactive organ require so much power and eat up so much of the body’s energy supply?
This great mystery of the body is finally answered through a new study as it is revealed how this ”tiny secret fuel-guzzler” is hidden within our neurons.
The human brain is comprised of a 100 trillion or more interconnections which are busy communicating with one another. It’s sheer physical complexity speaks to its speed and sophistication.
First of all, when a brain cell or neuron, passes information to another neuron, it does so via a synapse or gap between the two.
A synapse is basically a connection of one cell talking to another. The transmitter neuron uses a thin strand called an axon to give information to the second neuron, the receiver, by its long strands that branch out called dendrites. When an axon tip connects with a dendrite of the receiver, that’s called a synapse. Neurons communicate by bio-electricity.
A pre-synaptic neuron sends a cluster of vesicles to the end of its tail area, which is closest to the synapse. Then, these vesicles sort of “take-in or suck up” the neurotransmitters from the neuron in a sort of holding state. Waiting for the information to be used or ”mailed“ to another neuron.
These full neurons are then transported to the edge of the neuron, where they “dock and fuse” to the membrane where they can release the neurotransmitter into the synaptic gap for transmission and completion of this part of the communication process. This can take place thousands of times per minute.
Once at this phase, the transmitters further connect to the post-synaptic cell, to continue the messaging process.
This fundamental part of the messaging process take up a substantial amount of energy, because the vesicles (the ones closest to the synapse), require their own production of energy molecules to conduct with the electrical messages in the brain. Vesicles cannot store enough of energy molecules themselves.
At this point, it makes sense that the brain would require itself to make so much energy to perform it’s duties properly.
But, why then when the system is not in such a high use mode or when at rest, does the brain still guzzle up so much of the body’s power supply?
Researchers set up an experiment designed to look at active and inactive nerve terminals to compare the metabolic states. To better determine at what rates they require and utilize energy.
What they found was that even while at rest, inactive nerve terminals have high metabolic energy demands.
The “hidden pump” responsible for pushing the protons out of the vesicle and sucking the neurotransmitters to other neighboring cells is never at rest and requires a steady stream of energy to perform, even while we seem to be inactive.
According to this study, this “hidden pump” was responsible for half of all resting synapse’s metabolic consumption.
Upon looking deeper, scientists found that most of the pumps tend to be leaky and are constantly spilling out protons when they are full of neurotransmitters and when they are inactive.
The author of the study stated, “Given the number of synapses in the human brain and the presence of hundreds of SVs at each of these nerve terminals, this hidden metabolic cost of quickly returning synapses in a ready state comes at a cost of major (pre-synaptic energy) and fuel expenditure, likely contributing significantly to the brain’s metabolic demands and metabolic vulnerability.”
Further research is needed to see how different neurons will be affected by this high metabolic energy burden and if it impacts their response capabilities in particular ways from one another.
For instance, different neurons may be more susceptible to fuel loss such as oxygen and sugar deficits than others. Knowing this could help us preserve more energy and figure out why the brain is so vulnerable from a weakened energy supply.
Biochemist, Timothy Ryan from Weil Cornell Medicine in New York City, said; “If we had a way to safely lower this energy drain and thus slow brain metabolism, it could be very impactful clinically.”
In so many ways our brain is the body’s command center and our most prized organ, in a sense. Without it’s full ability to serve the rest of the body due to an energy drain. The brain would be incapable of leading and orchestrating a healthy response to any of the many threatening scenarios we have on a minute to minute basis.
I like the idea of looking more deeply into how just one system of the body is altered in a crisis situation. In that way, a “one system at a time approach“ can reveal the body’s secrets through its daily mechanisms of operation. This may serve to be a more accurate method for scientists to draw more broad conclusions into how other neighboring similar biological systems may synergistically coordinate a disease response and maintain a state of balance and wellness.
-A Balanced Brain is a Better Brain For A Happier Life-