Criticality between Cortical States

• Published in: Physical review letters Vol. 122; no. 20; p. 208101
• Main Authors: Fontenele, Antonio J., Vasconcelos, Nivaldo António Portela, Feliciano, Thaís, Aguiar, Leandro A. A., Soares-Cunha, Carina, Coimbra, Bárbara, Dalla Porta, Leonardo, Ribeiro, Sidarta, Rodrigues, Ana João, Sousa, Nuno, Carelli, Pedro V., Copelli, Mauro
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Physical Society (APS) 24-05-2019; American Physical Society
• Subjects: Avalanches; Brain; Cerebral cortex; Ciências Médicas; Critical point; Exponents; Medicina Básica; Percolation; Phase transitions; Science & Technology; Spiking
• ISSN: 0031-9007; 1079-7114
• DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.122.208101

Since the first measurements of neuronal avalanches, the critical brain hypothesis has gained traction. However, if the brain is critical, what is the phase transition? For several decades, it has been known that the cerebral cortex operates in a diversity of regimes, ranging from highly synchronous states (with higher spiking variability) to desynchronized states (with lower spiking variability). Here, using both new and publicly available data, we test independent signatures of criticality and show that a phase transition occurs in an intermediate value of spiking variability, in both anesthetized and freely moving animals. The critical exponents point to a universality class different from mean-field directed percolation. Importantly, as the cortex hovers around this critical point, the avalanche exponents follow a linear relation that encompasses previous experimental results from different setups and is reproduced by a model.
NPAD/UFRN. A. J. F., N. A. P. V., T. F., L. A. A. A,L. D. P., S. R., P. V. C., and M. C. acknowledge supportfrom CAPES (Grants No. 88887.131435/2016-00 andPROEX 534/2018, No. 23038.003382/2018-39),FACEPE (Grant No. APQ 0826-1.05/15) and CNPq(Grants No. 310712/2014-9, No. 301744/2018-1,No. 425329/2018-6, No. 308775/2015-5, No. 249991/2013-6, and No. 408145/2016-1). This article was pro-duced as part of the activities of FAPESP Research,InnovationandDisseminationCenterforNeuromathematics (Grant No. 2013/07699-0, S. PauloResearch Foundation). C. S.-C. and B. C. acknowledgesupport from FCT (Grants No. SFRH/BD/51992/2012and No. SFRH/BD/98675/2013) and PAC-MEDPERSYST Project No. POCI-01-0145-FEDER-016428 (Portugal 2020); A. J. R. received support from anFCT Investigator Fellowship (IF/00883/2013) and acknowl-edges the Janssen Neuroscience Prize (first edition) and theBIAL Foundation Grant No. 30/2016