Temperature Effects on Information Capacity and Energy Efficiency of Hodgkin–Huxley Neuron**Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant Nos 11105062, 11275003, 11265014 and 11275084, and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities under Grant No LZUJBKY-2015-119.

Abstract

Recent experimental and theoretical studies show that energy efficiency, which measures the amount of information processed by a neuron with per unit of energy consumption, plays an important role in the evolution of neural systems. Here we calculate the information rates and energy efficiencies of the Hodgkin–Huxley (HH) neuron model at different temperatures in a noisy environment. It is found that both the information rate and energy efficiency are maximized by certain temperatures. Though the information rate and energy efficiency cannot be maximized simultaneously, the neuron holds a high information processing capacity at the temperature corresponding to the maximal energy efficiency. Our results support the idea that the energy efficiency is a selective pressure that influences the evolution of nervous systems.