The Cortex and the Critical Point

The Cortex and the Critical Point PDF Author: John M. Beggs
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262544032
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 217

Get Book Here

Book Description
How the cerebral cortex operates near a critical phase transition point for optimum performance. Individual neurons have limited computational powers, but when they work together, it is almost like magic. Firing synchronously and then breaking off to improvise by themselves, they can be paradoxically both independent and interdependent. This happens near the critical point: when neurons are poised between a phase where activity is damped and a phase where it is amplified, where information processing is optimized, and complex emergent activity patterns arise. The claim that neurons in the cortex work best when they operate near the critical point is known as the criticality hypothesis. In this book John Beggs—one of the pioneers of this hypothesis—offers an introduction to the critical point and its relevance to the brain. Drawing on recent experimental evidence, Beggs first explains the main ideas underlying the criticality hypotheses and emergent phenomena. He then discusses the critical point and its two main consequences—first, scale-free properties that confer optimum information processing; and second, universality, or the idea that complex emergent phenomena, like that seen near the critical point, can be explained by relatively simple models that are applicable across species and scale. Finally, Beggs considers future directions for the field, including research on homeostatic regulation, quasicriticality, and the expansion of the cortex and intelligence. An appendix provides technical material; many chapters include exercises that use freely available code and data sets.

The Cortex and the Critical Point

The Cortex and the Critical Point PDF Author: John M. Beggs
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262544032
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 217

Get Book Here

Book Description
How the cerebral cortex operates near a critical phase transition point for optimum performance. Individual neurons have limited computational powers, but when they work together, it is almost like magic. Firing synchronously and then breaking off to improvise by themselves, they can be paradoxically both independent and interdependent. This happens near the critical point: when neurons are poised between a phase where activity is damped and a phase where it is amplified, where information processing is optimized, and complex emergent activity patterns arise. The claim that neurons in the cortex work best when they operate near the critical point is known as the criticality hypothesis. In this book John Beggs—one of the pioneers of this hypothesis—offers an introduction to the critical point and its relevance to the brain. Drawing on recent experimental evidence, Beggs first explains the main ideas underlying the criticality hypotheses and emergent phenomena. He then discusses the critical point and its two main consequences—first, scale-free properties that confer optimum information processing; and second, universality, or the idea that complex emergent phenomena, like that seen near the critical point, can be explained by relatively simple models that are applicable across species and scale. Finally, Beggs considers future directions for the field, including research on homeostatic regulation, quasicriticality, and the expansion of the cortex and intelligence. An appendix provides technical material; many chapters include exercises that use freely available code and data sets.

Criticality in Neural Systems

Criticality in Neural Systems PDF Author: Dietmar Plenz
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 3527651020
Category : Computers
Languages : de
Pages : 734

Get Book Here

Book Description
Neurowissenschaftler suchen nach Antworten auf die Fragen, wie wir lernen und Information speichern, welche Prozesse im Gehirn verantwortlich sind und in welchem Zeitrahmen diese ablaufen. Die Konzepte, die aus der Physik kommen und weiterentwickelt werden, können in Medizin und Soziologie, aber auch in Robotik und Bildanalyse Anwendung finden. Zentrales Thema dieses Buches sind die sogenannten kritischen Phänomene im Gehirn. Diese werden mithilfe mathematischer und physikalischer Modelle beschrieben, mit denen man auch Erdbeben, Waldbrände oder die Ausbreitung von Epidemien modellieren kann. Neuere Erkenntnisse haben ergeben, dass diese selbstgeordneten Instabilitäten auch im Nervensystem auftreten. Dieses Referenzwerk stellt theoretische und experimentelle Befunde internationaler Gehirnforschung vor zeichnet die Perspektiven dieses neuen Forschungsfeldes auf.

The Functional Role of Critical Dynamics in Neural Systems

The Functional Role of Critical Dynamics in Neural Systems PDF Author: Nergis Tomen
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3030209652
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 287

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book offers a timely overview of theories and methods developed by an authoritative group of researchers to understand the link between criticality and brain functioning. Cortical information processing in particular and brain function in general rely heavily on the collective dynamics of neurons and networks distributed over many brain areas. A key concept for characterizing and understanding brain dynamics is the idea that networks operate near a critical state, which offers several potential benefits for computation and information processing. However, there is still a large gap between research on criticality and understanding brain function. For example, cortical networks are not homogeneous but highly structured, they are not in a state of spontaneous activation but strongly driven by changing external stimuli, and they process information with respect to behavioral goals. So far the questions relating to how critical dynamics may support computation in this complex setting, and whether they can outperform other information processing schemes remain open. Based on the workshop “Dynamical Network States, Criticality and Cortical Function", held in March 2017 at the Hanse Institute for Advanced Studies (HWK) in Delmenhorst, Germany, the book provides readers with extensive information on these topics, as well as tools and ideas to answer the above-mentioned questions. It is meant for physicists, computational and systems neuroscientists, and biologists.

Criticality as a signature of healthy neural systems: multi-scale experimental and computational studies

Criticality as a signature of healthy neural systems: multi-scale experimental and computational studies PDF Author: Paolo Massobrio
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
ISBN: 2889195031
Category : Nervous system
Languages : en
Pages : 140

Get Book Here

Book Description
Since 2003, when spontaneous activity in cortical slices was first found to follow scale-free statistical distributions in size and duration, increasing experimental evidences and theoretical models have been reported in the literature supporting the emergence of evidence of scale invariance in the cortex. Although strongly debated, such results refer to many different in vitro and in vivo preparations (awake monkeys, anesthetized rats and cats, in vitro slices and dissociated cultures), suggesting that power law distributions and scale free correlations are a very general and robust feature of cortical activity that has been conserved across species as specific substrate for information storage, transmission and processing. Equally important is that the features reminiscent of scale invariance and criticality are observed at scale spanning from the level of interacting arrays of neurons all the way up to correlations across the entire brain. Thus, if we accept that the brain operates near a critical point, little is known about the causes and/or consequences of a loss of criticality and its relation with brain diseases (e.g. epilepsy). The study of how pathogenetical mechanisms are related to the critical/non-critical behavior of neuronal networks would likely provide new insights into the cellular and synaptic determinants of the emergence of critical-like dynamics and structures in neural systems. At the same time, the relation between the impaired behavior and the disruption of criticality would help clarify its role in normal brain function. The main objective of this Research Topic is to investigate the emergence/disruption of the emergent critical-like states in healthy/impaired neural systems.

How Nature Works

How Nature Works PDF Author: Per Bak
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1475754264
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 229

Get Book Here

Book Description
Self-organized criticality, the spontaneous development of systems to a critical state, is the first general theory of complex systems with a firm mathematical basis. This theory describes how many seemingly desperate aspects of the world, from stock market crashes to mass extinctions, avalanches to solar flares, all share a set of simple, easily described properties. "...a'must read'...Bak writes with such ease and lucidity, and his ideas are so intriguing...essential reading for those interested in complex systems...it will reward a sufficiently skeptical reader." -NATURE "...presents the theory (self-organized criticality) in a form easily absorbed by the non-mathematically inclined reader." -BOSTON BOOK REVIEW "I picture Bak as a kind of scientific musketeer; flamboyant, touchy, full of swagger and ready to join every fray... His book is written with panache. The style is brisk, the content stimulating. I recommend it as a bracing experience." -NEW SCIENTIST

Subcritical Brain, The: A Synergy Of Segregated Neural Circuits In Memory, Cognition And Sensorimotor Control

Subcritical Brain, The: A Synergy Of Segregated Neural Circuits In Memory, Cognition And Sensorimotor Control PDF Author: Yoram Baram
Publisher: World Scientific
ISBN: 981123311X
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 298

Get Book Here

Book Description
Have over a hundred years of brain research revealed all its secrets? This book is motivated by a realization that cortical structure and behavior can be explained by a synergy of seemingly different mathematical notions: global attractors, which define non-invertible neural firing rate dynamics, random graphs, which define connectivity of neural circuit, and prime numbers, which define the dimension and category of cortical operation. Quantum computation is shown to ratify the main conclusion of the book: loosely connected small neural circuits facilitate higher information storage and processing capacities than highly connected large circuits. While these essentially separate mathematical notions have not been commonly involved in the evolution of neuroscience, they are shown in this book to be strongly inter-related in the cortical arena. Furthermore, neurophysiological experiments, as well as observations of natural behavior and evidence found in medical testing of neurologically impaired patients, are shown to support, and to be supported by the mathematical findings.Related Link(s)

Regulation of Critical Brain Dynamics and Its Functional Implications

Regulation of Critical Brain Dynamics and Its Functional Implications PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description
Evidence of criticality at various levels of neuronal organization has accumulated over the past 2 decades. However, little is known of how criticality affects brain function, whether the critical state is always optimal for information processing, and whether the brain can change its operating point with regards to criticality so as to accommodate varying information processing requirements. Therefore, the aim of this thesis is to elucidate mechanisms that regulate brain criticality and to understand their impact on local and global information processing. We empirically validated that the brain can control the level of criticality via neuromodulation, with implications on perception. Then, we relied on computational modeling to gain full control on the parameters that determine criticality, and tested the implications of the level of criticality on two theories of brain function. Last, since excitation/inhibition balance is known to be a crucial determinant of criticality, which can vary across individuals, but also within subjects across time with neuromodulation, we developed a method to non-invasively estimate the functional E/I ratio.

Rhythms of the Brain

Rhythms of the Brain PDF Author: Gyorgy Buzsaki
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019804125X
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 466

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book provides eloquent support for the idea that spontaneous neuron activity, far from being mere noise, is actually the source of our cognitive abilities. In a sequence of "cycles," György Buzsáki guides the reader from the physics of oscillations through neuronal assembly organization to complex cognitive processing and memory storage. His clear, fluid writing-accessible to any reader with some scientific knowledge-is supplemented by extensive footnotes and references that make it just as gratifying and instructive a read for the specialist. The coherent view of a single author who has been at the forefront of research in this exciting field, this volume is essential reading for anyone interested in our rapidly evolving understanding of the brain.

The Brain at Criticality

The Brain at Criticality PDF Author: Mianxin Liu
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Brain
Languages : en
Pages : 210

Get Book Here

Book Description
The brain activities are characterized by spontaneous and persistent irregular fluctuations in space and time. Criticality theory from statistical physics has been proposed as a principle to explain the variability in normal brain spontaneous activity and has suggested the functional benefits of variability, such as maximized dynamic range of response to stimuli and information capacity. In parallel, the brains show variability in other aspects, such as the structural heterogeneity across brain regions, the intra-individual variability across experimental trials, and the behavior difference across groups and individuals. The associations between the variability of spontaneous activities and these different types of structural, intra and inter-individual variabilities remain elusive. My doctoral study thus aimed to bridge the brain variability and the above-mentioned variations based on criticality theory and analysis of empirical data. As a preparatory analysis, we first collected evidence to prove criticality in human functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data. The advanced statistical criteria were used to exclude potential artefacts that can induce power-law scaling without the mechanism of criticality. In the first part of the study, we addressed methodological issue and tested whether several measures of either spatial or temporal complexity due to experimental limitations could be reliable proxy of spatiotemporal variability (related to criticality) in vivo. The high spatiotemporal resolutions of whole-cortex optical voltage imaging in mice brain during the waking up from anesthesia enabled simultaneous investigation of functional connectivity (FC), Multi-Scale Entropy (MSE, measure of temporal variability), Regional Entropy (RE, quantity of spatiotemporal variability) and the interdependency among them under different brain states. The results suggested that MSE and FC could be effective measures to capture spatiotemporal variability under limitation of imaging modalities applicable to human subjects. This study also lays methodological basis for the third study in this thesis. In the second study, we explored the interaction between spontaneous activity and evoked activity from mice brain imaging under whisker stimulus. The whisker stimulus will first evoke the local activation in sensory cortex and then trigger whole-cortex activity with variable patterns in different experimental trials. This trial-to-trial variability in the cortical evoked component was then attributed to the changes of ongoing activity state at stimulus onset. The study links ongoing activity variability and evoked activity variability, which further consolidates the association between ongoing activity and brain functions. In the third study, we measured the signal variability of the whole brain from resting state fMRI, and developed the multivariate pattern of cortical entropy, called entropy profile, as reliable and interpretable biomarker of individual difference in cognitive ability. We showed that the whole cortical entropy profile from resting- state fMRI is a robust personalized measure. We tested the predictive power for general and specific cognitive abilities based on cortical entropy profiles with out- of-sample prediction. Furthermore, we revealed the anatomical features underlying cross-region and cross-individual variations in cortical entropy profiles. This study provides new potential biomarker based on brain spontaneous variability which could benefit the applications in psychology and psychiatry studies. The whole study laid a foundation for brain criticality-/variability-based studies and applications and broadened our understanding of the associations between neural structures, functional dynamics and cognitive ability

Artificial General Intelligence

Artificial General Intelligence PDF Author: Jürgen Schmidhuber
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 3642228860
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 427

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Artificial General Intelligence, AGI 2011, held in Mountain View, CA, USA, in August 2011. The 28 revised full papers and 26 short papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 103 submissions. The papers are written by leading academic and industry researchers involved in scientific and engineering work and focus on the creation of AI systems possessing general intelligence at the human level and beyond.