Thread by @KayavonEugen

Birds do it better: our latest work in @CurrentBiology shows their neurons consume 3x less glucose compared to neurons in the mammalian brain. Very excited to share the results of lasts years work with you! A🧵
authors.elsevier.com/c/1fjL23QW8R~d…
#Birds #Neuroscience #Evolution #SciComm

Brain tissue is metabolically costly. This is mostly caused by expensive neurons that need a lot of glucose. Across mammals, the neuronal energy budget appears to be fixed.

Birds pack many more neurons in their brains compared to mammals. This partly explains how they enable advanced sensory and cognitive processing capacity with such small brains. But how can they support such high cell numbers?

In our study, using FDG-PET and kinetic modeling, we discovered neurons in the bird brain use 3x less glucose compared to mammalian neurons. This partly explains how they can support such high neuron numbers without associated metabolic costs or compromising neuronal signaling.

Interestingly, these results can not just be explained by a smaller cell size. We suggest two other contributing factors that are unique to birds: the specific organization of the brain and the warmer body temperature.

The LCA of birds and mammals existed ~312 mya, and in the long parallel evolution of both lineages, birds ended up with cell-dense tiny brains organized in a distinct lay-out situated in a warm physiology. And as we show here: cheap neurons with advanced processing capacity.