For several years, @ Fabiopas82 & I have been working with colleagues to investigate network control theory as a possible process model for network level phenomena in the human brain. The theory draws upon a notion of control energy. What is the biological basis of that energy? 
New work from @Xiaosong_He & others uses PET imaging to provide initial evidence for the metabolic substrates of control energy, elucidating the biological basis of network control theory as a framework for probing the brain’s energy landscape. biorxiv.org/content/10.110…
This perspective complements other efforts to link control energy to notions of cognitive effort or cognitive demand, as evident in work from @urs_braun, Heike Tost, Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg, and others: nature.com/articles/s4146…
The metabolic perspective also complements efforts to understand how control energy might be modulated by neurotransmitter receptor function, whether that be dopamine in @urs_braun's paper or serotonin in this nice preprint from @amykooz's group: biorxiv.org/content/10.110…
To me, some of the really exciting open questions now are how to bring these linked explanations (metabolism, neurotransmitters, cognitive effort) of control energy to bear on behavior. Here, I am thinking of work in non-human primates from @marlenecohen biorxiv.org/content/10.110…
and work from Karol Szymula in collaboration with @DesrochersLab and @graybiellab showing how habit learning is supported by efficiently controlled network dynamics in naive macaque monkeys arxiv.org/abs/2006.14565
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