how does the brain consume 20% of the 2000 calories every day?

Question

In a similar question, it was mentioned that the human brain consumes around 20% of our energy, that’s 400 calories. What is this energy converted to? I can understand why breathing, digestion and movement requires a lot of energy, but 400 calories for neurons firing tiny amounts of electric signals seems excessive.

In: Biology

Answer 1

You don’t realize how metabolically expensive firing those electric signals are

If you’re interested, look up the sodium potassium ATPase pump. It’s how we even fire a neuron and is a big part of why the brain soaks up so much of our energy