The relative metabolic demand of inhibition and excitation

Daniel Waldvogel, Peter van Gelderen, Wolf Muellbacher, Ulf Ziemann, Ilka Immisch and Mark Hallett ()
Additional contact information
Daniel Waldvogel: Human Motor Control Section
Peter van Gelderen: In Vivo NMR Research Center, NINDS, NIH, Building 10
Wolf Muellbacher: Human Motor Control Section
Ulf Ziemann: Human Motor Control Section
Ilka Immisch: Human Motor Control Section
Mark Hallett: Human Motor Control Section

Nature, 2000, vol. 406, issue 6799, 995-998

Abstract: Abstract By using the (14C)2-deoxyglucose method1, inhibition has been shown to be a metabolically active process at the level of the synapse2,3. This is supported by recent results from magnetic resonance spectroscopy that related the changes in neuroenergetics occurring with functional activation to neurotransmitter cycling4. However, inhibitory synapses are less numerous and strategically better located than excitatory synapses, indicating that inhibition may be more efficient, and therefore less energy-consuming, than excitation. Here we test this hypothesis using event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging in volunteers whose motor cortex was inhibited during the no-go condition of a go/no-go task, as demonstrated by transcranial magnetic stimulation. Unlike excitation, inhibition evoked no measurable change in the blood-oxygenation-level-dependent signal in the motor cortex, indicating that inhibition is less metabolically demanding. Therefore, the ‘activation’ seen in functional imaging studies probably results from excitation rather than inhibition.

Date: 2000
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DOI: 10.1038/35023171

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