Abstract Numerous studies have proposed that specific brain activity statistics provide evidence that the brain operates at a critical point, which could have implications for the brain’s information processing capabilities. A recent paper reported that identical scalings and criticality signatures arise in a variety of different neural systems (neural cultures, cortical slices, anesthetized or awake brains, across both reptiles and mammals). The diversity of these states calls into question the claimed role of criticality in information processing. We analyze the methodology used to assess criticality and replicate this analysis for spike trains of two non-critical systems. These two non-critical systems pass all the tests used to assess criticality in the aforementioned recent paper. This analysis provides a crucial control (which is absent from the original study) and suggests that the methodology used may not be sufficient to establish that a system operates at criticality. Hence whether the brain operates at criticality or not remains an open question and it is of evident interest to develop more robust methods to address these questions.
Is There Sufficient Evidence for Criticality in Cortical Systems?
Published 2021 in eNeuro
ABSTRACT
PUBLICATION RECORD
- Publication year
2021
- Venue
eNeuro
- Publication date
2021-04-02
- Fields of study
Biology, Medicine
- Identifiers
- External record
- Source metadata
Semantic Scholar, PubMed
CITATION MAP
EXTRACTION MAP
CLAIMS
CONCEPTS
- brain
The biological neural system whose possible critical behavior is under discussion in the abstract.
Aliases: cortical systems
- criticality
The hypothesized dynamical regime in which neural activity is argued to operate near a critical point.
Aliases: critical point
- criticality-testing methodology
The analytical procedure used to evaluate whether neural activity exhibits signatures associated with critical dynamics.
Aliases: methodology used to assess criticality, criticality assessment methodology
- criticality tests
The set of statistical checks or criteria applied to neural activity to infer critical behavior.
Aliases: tests used to assess criticality
- crucial control
A comparison case included to test whether the criticality criteria also hold for systems not believed to be critical.
- non-critical systems
Neural systems treated here as controls because they are not assumed to operate at criticality.
- spike trains
Sequences of discrete neural firing events used as the data input for the criticality analysis.
REFERENCES
Showing 1-15 of 15 references · Page 1 of 1
CITED BY
Showing 1-33 of 33 citing papers · Page 1 of 1