The common story is that the brain consume 20% of the body energy. This study (if correct) refine the interpretation that the brain consume 20 watt by partition

The common story is that the brain consume 20% of the body energy. This study (if correct) refine the interpretation that the brain consume 20 watt by partitioning between computation and communication cost. Here there is no disproportionate amount of energy, it is just that the remainder is spent is mere communication. Also yes they speak about the cortex, it is true that the majority (~70%) of the neurons are not in the cortex but in the forgotten cerebellum, however while mysterious, the cerebellum is not necessary for language processing, there are some humans on earth that don't have a cerebellum and while less intelligent, rumors are that they are still human. Although this should be double checked. also while I think about it, there's probably a huge chunk (how much) of energy spent in building/catabolizing new axons vs executing the runtime.