Having the landscape in the background: What can metabolic constraints explain about memory?

Abstract Haueis and Colaço claim that metabolic considerations function as explanatory constraints. I argue the explanatory contribution of metabolic constraints for synaptic models of memory is not well delineated. While metabolic constraints determine which synaptic architectures are biologically possible, they do not structure the outcome of synaptic consolidation. Metabolic constraints are explanatory since they account for the background conditions of memory formation.