Tradeoff between robustness and efficiency across species and brain regions can contribute to differential cognitive functions between species & to fragility underlying human psychopathologies

A Tradeoff in the Neural Code across Regions and Species. Raviv Pryluk et al. Cell, Volume 176, Issue 3, p597-609.e18, January 24, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2018.12.032

Highlights
    •    Human neurons utilize information capacity (efficiency) better than macaque neurons
    •    Cingulate cortex neurons are more efficient than amygdala neurons in both species
    •    Amygdala and monkey neurons show more synchrony and vocabulary overlap (robustness)
    •    There is a tradeoff between robustness and efficiency across species and regions

Summary: Many evolutionary years separate humans and macaques, and although the amygdala and cingulate cortex evolved to enable emotion and cognition in both, an evident functional gap exists. Although they were traditionally attributed to differential neuroanatomy, functional differences might also arise from coding mechanisms. Here we find that human neurons better utilize information capacity (efficient coding) than macaque neurons in both regions, and that cingulate neurons are more efficient than amygdala neurons in both species. In contrast, we find more overlap in the neural vocabulary and more synchronized activity (robustness coding) in monkeys in both regions and in the amygdala of both species. Our findings demonstrate a tradeoff between robustness and efficiency across species and regions. We suggest that this tradeoff can contribute to differential cognitive functions between species and underlie the complementary roles of the amygdala and the cingulate cortex. In turn, it can contribute to fragility underlying human psychopathologies.


Simplified: Pioneering brain study reveals ‘software’ differences between humans and monkeys. Alison Abbott. Nature 565, 410-411 (2019), https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-00198-7

Neuroscientists tracked the activity of single neurons deep in the brain and suggest the findings could explain humans’ intelligence — and susceptibility to psychiatric disorders.