Neuronal coding and metabolic cost of information

For most neurons, the information the neuron passes on is contained within the times of sending out electrical pulses - so-called action potentials. It is still not fully understood how to read this "neural code". The efficient coding hypothesis proposes that due to evolutionary pressures sensory systems evolved to transmit and process information in the most efficient way possible. However, the notion of efficiency seems to be different in different sensory systems. Cortical neurons keep their firing rates low to minimize metabolic expenses. So do insect olfactory receptor neurons (ORNs, the first layer of the olfactory system). Neurons in the insect antennal lobe (the second layer of the olfactory system), on the other hand fully use the space of possible firing rates to encode the maximum information about the odor. In my thesis, I studied how can single cortical neurons and their populations transmit and process information, while keeping metabolic expenses low, and also how the insect olfactory system encodes information about odors encountered in the air. In the part of my thesis about metabolically efficient information transmission I focused mainly on the role of inhibitory neurons in efficient information transmission. Through mathematical analysis and Monte Carlo simulations of spiking..