The neuroscientist Zahid Padamsey has studied how the availability of energy (or food) has influenced the evolution of the brain. To better understand these energetic constraints, in 2023 Padamsey summarized research on certain peculiarities of electrical signaling that indicate an evolutionary tendency toward energy efficiency. But the brain’s optimal transmission rate is far lower than might be expected. The optimal information rate — the fastest rate at which neurons can still distinguish messages from their neighbors — is half that, or 250 hertz. Our neurons, however, have an average firing rate of 4 hertz, 50 to 60 times less than what is optimal for information transmission.