Related papers: The brain: What is critical about it?
Brain rhythms contribute to every aspect of brain function. Here, we study critical and resonance phenomena that precede the emergence of brain rhythms. Using an analytical approach and simulations of a cortical circuit model of neural…
Brain rhythms seem central to understanding the neurophysiological basis of human cognition. Yet, despite significant advances, key questions remain unresolved. In this comprehensive position paper, we review the current state of the art on…
Self-organized criticality (SOC) refers to the ability of complex systems to evolve towards a 2nd-order phase transition at which interactions between system components lead to scale-invariant events beneficial for system performance. For…
Human brains are arguably the most complex entities known. Composed of billions of neurons, connected via a highly detailed structure where the underlying method by which functionality occurs is still debated. Here we consider one theory…
Recent observation for scale invariant neural avalanches in the brain have been discussed in details in the scientific literature. We point out, that these results do not necessarily imply that the properties of the underlying neural…
Many of the amazing functional capabilities of the brain are collective properties stemming from the interactions of large sets of individual neurons. In particular, the most salient collective phenomena in brain activity are oscillations,…
Network control theory has recently emerged as a promising approach for understanding brain function and dynamics. By operationalizing notions of control theory for brain networks, it offers a fundamental explanation for how brain dynamics…
At the point of a second order phase transition also termed as a critical point, systems display long range order and their macroscopic behaviors are independent of the microscopic details making up the system. Due to these properties, it…
Redundancy is a ubiquitous property of the nervous system. This means that vastly different configurations of cellular and synaptic components can enable the same neural circuit functions. However, until recently very little brain disorder…
Synaptic plasticity is the capacity of a preexisting connection between two neurons to change in strength as a function of neural activity. Because synaptic plasticity is the major candidate mechanism for learning and memory, the…
The critical behavior of many physical systems involves two competing $n^{}_1-$ and $n^{}_2-$component order-parameters, ${\bf S}^{}_1$ and ${\bf S}^{}_2$, respectively, with $n=n^{}_1+n^{}_2$. Varying an external control parameter $g$,…
The accumulation of adaptations in an open-ended manner during lifetime learning is a holy grail in reinforcement learning, intrinsic motivation, artificial curiosity, and developmental robotics. We present a specification for a cognitive…
In a many body system, constituents interact with each other, forming a recursive pattern of interaction and giving rise to many interesting phenomena. Based upon concepts of the modern many body theory, a model for a generic many body…
We all are fascinated by the phenomena of intelligent behavior, as generated both by our own brains and by the brains of other animals. As physicists we would like to understand if there are some general principles that govern the structure…
In recent years a fashion has grown up to ascribe great importance to ``quantum critical points'' at T=0, at the boundary between the basins of attraction to the stable fixed points of ordered ground states. I argue that more physical…
The idea that information-processing systems operate near criticality to enhance computational performance is supported by scaling signatures in brain activity. However, external signals raise the question of whether this behavior is…
Passive mechanical response of skeletal muscles at fast time scales is dominated by long range interactions inducing cooperative behavior without breaking the detailed balance. This leads to such unusual "material properties" as negative…
We present an analytical description for the collective dynamics of oscillator ensembles with higher-order coupling encoded by simplicial structure, which serves as an illustrative and insightful paradigm for brain function and information…
The brain is a highly complex organ consisting of a myriad of subsystems that flexibly interact and adapt over time and context to enable perception, cognition, and behavior. Understanding the multi-scale nature of the brain, i.e., how…
This is a follow-up tutorial article of [17] and [16], in this paper, we will introduce several important cognitive functions of the brain. Brain cognitive functions are the mental processes that allow us to receive, select, store,…