Homeostatic Adaptation of Optimal Population Codes under Metabolic Stress

TL;DR

This paper develops a mathematical framework modeling how neural populations adapt their coding strategies to metabolic stress, maintaining function while conserving energy, and aligns well with experimental observations.

Contribution

It introduces a novel, simple energy-constrained population coding model that explains neural adaptation under metabolic stress using biophysical simulations.

Findings

Neural populations adapt tuning curves to conserve energy during metabolic stress.

The model predicts changes in neuronal noise and firing rates consistent with experimental data.

Analytical solutions for optimal coding strategies under energy constraints are provided.

Abstract

Information processing in neural populations is inherently constrained by metabolic resource limits and noise properties, with dynamics that are not accurately described by existing mathematical models. Recent data, for example, shows that neurons in mouse visual cortex go into a "low power mode" in which they maintain firing rate homeostasis while expending less energy. This adaptation leads to increased neuronal noise and tuning curve flattening in response to metabolic stress. We have developed a theoretical population coding framework that captures this behavior using two novel, surprisingly simple constraints: an approximation of firing rate homeostasis and an energy limit tied to noise levels via biophysical simulation. A key feature of our contribution is an energy budget model directly connecting adenosine triphosphate (ATP) use in cells to a fully explainable mathematical framework that generalizes existing optimal population codes. Specifically, our simulation provides an energy-dependent dispersed Poisson noise model, based on the assumption that the cell will follow an optimal decay path to produce the least-noisy spike rate that is possible at a given cellular energy budget. Each state along this optimal path is associated with properties (resting potential and leak conductance) which can be measured in electrophysiology experiments and have been shown to change under prolonged caloric deprivation. We analytically derive the optimal coding strategy for neurons under varying energy budgets and coding goals, and show how our method uniquely captures how populations of tuning curves adapt while maintaining homeostasis, as has been observed empirically.