Neuro-energetic aspects of cognition — The role of pulse-wave-pulse conversion in the interpretation of brain imaging data

In the last decade, neuro-energetics has become an important research topic, which can contribute to better understanding and interpreting brain imaging data. We need to understand how the brain encodes information coming from the environment, and how this information is converted to knowledge and meaning useful for intentional action and decision making. Valuable information can be derived from both single neuron and population (neuropil) recording in order to investigate the cognitive cycle. Usually pulses are measured with electrodes placed intracellularly while oscillations are measured through ECoG. Our main interest here is to investigate the relationship between the creation of knowledge and meaning and the metabolic cycle in neural populations, as well as the conversion of incoming action potentials to the dendritic structure of the neuron into currents which will contribute to new action potentials. This process we call the pulse-wave-pulse conversion. We model the coupling the energy consumption associated with new action potentials and the metabolic cycle, and the conclusions for future large-scale neuro-energetic models.