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. 2011 Mar 1;6(3):e17514. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0017514

Table 4. Estimated cost of mammalian brains.

Number of neurons Total glucose use per minute (µmol/min) Total glucose use per day (µmol/day) Total glucose use per day (g/day) Total caloric cost per day (kCal/day)
1 million 0.00579 8.3 0.0015 0.006
10 million 0.0579 83 0.015 0.060
Smoky shrew, 36 million1 0.2084 300 0.05 0.2
Mouse, 71 million2 0.4111 592 0.11 0.4
100 million 0.579 833 0.15 0.6
Rat, 200 million2 1.158 1667 0.30 1.2
Marmoset, 636 million3 3.68 5302 1.0 3.8
Agouti, 795 million2 4.60 6628 1.2 4.8
1 billion 5.79 8337 1.5 6.0
Owl monkey3, capybara2, 1.5 billion 8.68 12506 2.2 9.0
Macaque, 6.4 billion3 37.0 53361 9.6 38
10 billion 57.9 83376 15 60
Baboon, 11 billion4 63.7 91713 16 66
Orangutan, 30 billion5 173.7 250128 45.02 180
Human, 86 billion6 497.9 717033 129 516
100 billion 579.0 833760 150 600
1

From (39);

2

From (23);

3

From (24);

4

From (25);

5

Estimated as 1/3 the number of neurons in the human cerebral cortex;

6

From (26).