Estimating the energy requirements for long term memory formation

Girard, Maxime; Jiang, Jiamu; van Rossum, Mark CW

Abstract

Brains consume metabolic energy to process information, but also to store memories. The energy required for memory formation can be substantial, for instance in fruit flies memory formation leads to a shorter lifespan upon subsequent starvation (Mery and Kawecki, 2005). Here we estimate that the energy required corresponds to about 10mJ/bit and compare this to biophysical estimates as well as energy requirements in computer hardware. We conclude that while the reason behind it is not known, biological memory storage is metabolically expensive.

Citation

Girard, M., Jiang, J., & van Rossum, M. C. Estimating the energy requirements for long term memory formation

• Working Paper Type: Working Paper
• Deposit Date: Jan 21, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 24, 2023
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/16230907
• Publisher URL: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.01.16.524203v2
• Additional Information: Preprint in BioRXiv