Related papers: Efficient coding under constraint drives neural sy…
The problem of neural coding is to understand how sequences of action potentials (spikes) are related to sensory stimuli, motor outputs, or (ultimately) thoughts and intentions. One clear question is whether the same coding rules are used…
We investigate the synaptic noise as a novel mechanism for creating critical avalanches in the activity of neural networks. We model neurons and chemical synapses by dynamical maps with a uniform noise term in the synaptic coupling. An…
As experiments advance to record from tens of thousands of neurons, statistical physics provides a framework for understanding how collective activity emerges from networks of fine-scale correlations. While modeling these populations is…
In this work, we report the preliminary analysis of the electrophysiological behavior of in vitro neuronal networks to identify when the networks are in a critical state based on the size distribution of network-wide avalanches of activity.…
A major unresolved question in Neuroscience is: What is the origin of the observed scale-invariant correlations in neural activity? Many researchers support the ``criticality hypothesis,'' which proposes that the brain operates near…
Hallmarks of criticality, such as power-laws and scale invariance, have been empirically found in cortical networks and it has been conjectured that operating at criticality entails functional advantages, such as optimal computational…
Recurrently connected neuron populations play key roles in sensory perception and memory storage across various brain regions. While these populations are often assumed to encode information through firing rates, this method becomes…
In the past few decades, there have been intense debates whether the brain operates at a critical state. To verify the criticality hypothesis in the neuronal networks is challenging and the accumulating experimental and theoretical results…
Motivated by recent studies of population coding in theoretical neuroscience, we examine the optimality of a recently described form of stochastic resonance known as suprathreshold stochastic resonance, which occurs in populations of noisy…
Experiments in various neural systems found avalanches: bursts of activity with characteristics typical for critical dynamics. A possible explanation for their occurrence is an underlying network that self-organizes into a critical state.…
A key question in neuroscience is at which level functional meaning emerges from biophysical phenomena. In most vertebrate systems, precise functions are assigned at the level of neural populations, while single-neurons are deemed…
Complex systems, when poised near a critical point of a phase transition between order and disorder, exhibit a dynamics comprising a scale-free mixture of order and disorder which is universal, i.e. system-independent (1-5). It allows…
Synapses are information efficient in the sense that their natural conductance values convey as many bits per Joule as possible, but efficiency falls rapidly if the conductance is forced to deviate from its natural value (Harris et al,…
Power laws in nature are considered to be signatures of complexity. The theory of self-organized criticality (SOC) was proposed to explain their origins. A longstanding principle of SOC is the \emph{separation of timescales} axiom. It…
We propose that a regulation mechanism based on Hebbian covariance plasticity may cause the brain to operate near criticality. We analyze the effect of such a regulation on the dynamics of a network with excitatory and inhibitory neurons…
Stimulus responses of cortical neurons exhibit the critical power law, where the covariance eigenspectrum follows the power law with the exponent just at the edge of differentiability of the neural manifold. This criticality is conjectured…
The concept of the brain as a critical system is very attractive because systems close to criticality are thought to maximise their dynamic range of information processing and communication. To date, there have been two key experimental…
Neurons in the brain represent information in their collective activity. The fidelity of this neural population code depends on whether and how variability in the response of one neuron is shared with other neurons. Two decades of studies…
Highly correlated brain dynamics produces synchronized states with no behavioral value, while weakly correlated dynamics prevent information flow. In between these states, the unique dynamical features of the critical state endow the brain…
Recent experimental and theoretical studies have indicated that the putative criticality of cortical dynamics may corresponds to a synchronization phase transition. The critical dynamics near such a critical point needs further…