How critical is brain criticality?

O’Byrne, Jordan; Jerbi, Karim

doi:10.1016/j.tins.2022.08.007

Cited by 137 publications

(109 citation statements)

References 175 publications

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“…The dendritic activities are into the critical states following power-laws; characterized by scaling functions within neurons; but mapped to the common scaling relation across individuals. The relation is in line with the extracellular neuronal avalanches in vertebrate species [11][12][13][14][15][16][17] which have provided evidence of the critical brain hypothesis [16]. Our intracellular data extend the universality of the hypothesis.…”

supporting

confidence: 86%

“…It has provided a representative, fundamental conceptual framework to explain avalanche-like phenomena in physics, biology, and many other fields [3]. Neuronal avalanche, one example of the SOC behavior, has been found in several vertebrate nervous tissues using extracellular recordings [11,[14][15][16][17]. However, no work has demonstrated that the neuronal avalanche occurs in a single neuron on the dendritic processes, and no association of the neuronal avalanche with the readiness potential exists.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Self-organized criticality for dendritic readiness potential

Kagaya¹,

Kubota²,

Nakajima³

2022

Preprint

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Self-organized criticality is a principle explaining avalanche-like phenomena obeying power-laws in integrate-and-fire type dynamical systems [1][2][3][4]. Here, we demonstrate that the behaviorally relevant brain neurons, mediating voluntary and reflexive behaviors in crayfish [5-10], show signatures of self-organized criticality. The dendritic activities are into the critical states following power-laws; characterized by scaling functions within neurons; but mapped to the common scaling relation across individuals. The relation is in line with the extracellular neuronal avalanches in vertebrate species [11][12][13][14][15][16][17] which have provided evidence of the critical brain hypothesis [16]. Our intracellular data extend the universality of the hypothesis. In particular, it indicates that the pre-movement buildup activity before the voluntary behavioral onset "from crayfish to human" [18], readiness potential, is shaped by the avalanches. The nervous systems can exploit the universal dynamics for volition across the phylogenetic tree.

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supporting

confidence: 86%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Self-organized criticality for dendritic readiness potential

Kagaya¹,

Kubota²,

Nakajima³

2022

Preprint

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“…Consciousness should be understood within the physical principles governing the brain (Cosmelli et al, 2007;Werner, 2007). A widely discussed hypothesis is that, likewise other complex systems outside of equilibrium, the brain self regulates around a critical point i.e., at the edge of a second-order phase transition (Cocchi et al, 2017;OByrne and Jerbi, 2022), a property that is known as Self-Organized Criticality (SOC; Bak et al, 1987;Plenz et al, 2021). SOC offers an attractive theoretical framework for the brain, since it predicts the empirical evidences of optimal information processing (Shew et al, 2011;Shew and Plenz, 2013), dynamical range (Kinouchi and Copelli, 2006;Larremore et al, 2011), and maximization of metastability (Tognoli and Kelso, 2014).…”

Section: Avalanches and Consciousnessmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spontaneous neuronal avalanches as a correlate of access consciousness

et al. 2022

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Decades of research have advanced our understanding of the biophysical mechanisms underlying consciousness. However, an overarching framework bridging between models of consciousness and the large-scale organization of spontaneous brain activity is still missing. Based on the observation that spontaneous brain activity dynamically switches between epochs of segregation and large-scale integration of information, we hypothesize a brain-state dependence of conscious access, whereby the presence of either segregated or integrated states marks distinct modes of information processing. We first review influential works on the neuronal correlates of consciousness, spontaneous resting-state brain activity and dynamical system theory. Then, we propose a test experiment to validate our hypothesis that conscious access occurs in aperiodic cycles, alternating windows where new incoming information is collected but not experienced, to punctuated short-lived integration events, where conscious access to previously collected content occurs. In particular, we suggest that the integration events correspond to neuronal avalanches, which are collective bursts of neuronal activity ubiquitously observed in electrophysiological recordings. If confirmed, the proposed framework would link the physics of spontaneous cortical dynamics, to the concept of ignition within the global neuronal workspace theory, whereby conscious access manifest itself as a burst of neuronal activity.

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“…During conscious wakefulness, the brain has been widely suggested to operate close to criticality — a point of optimal computational capacity and information-richness where the underlying network is poised between order and disorder ((Beggs and Plenz, 2003; Carhart-Harris et al ., 2014; Carhart-Harris, 2018; Zimmern, 2020; O’Byrne and Jerbi, 2022; Toker et al ., 2022). This balance is putatively maintained by a proper tuning between excitation and inhibition (E/I) (Shew et al, 2011; Zhou and Yu, 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Aperiodic brain activity and response to anesthesia vary in disorders of consciousness

Maschke

Duclos²,

Owen

et al. 2022

Preprint

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In the human electroencephalogram (EEG), oscillatory power peaks co-exist with non-oscillatory, aperiodic activity. Although EEG analysis has traditionally focused exclusively on oscillatory power, recent investigations have shown that the aperiodic EEG component can distinguish conscious wakefulness from sleep and anesthetic-induced unconsciousness (Lendner et al. 2020). This study investigates the aperiodic EEG component of individuals in a disorder of consciousness (DOC), and how it changes in response to exposure to anesthesia. High-density EEG was recorded from 43 individuals in a DOC. To measure the brain’s reaction to global perturbation, a subset of n = 16 were also exposed to a targeted infusion of propofol anesthesia. The aperiodic component was defined by the spectral slope and offset in the 1-45 Hz and 30-45 Hz range of the power spectral density. Brain network criticality and complexity were estimated using the pair correlation function (PCF) and Lempel-Ziv complexity, respectively. The level of responsiveness of all individuals in DOC was assessed using the Coma Recovery Scale-Revised (CRS-R). Recovery of consciousness was assessed three months post-EEG. At baseline, the EEG aperiodic component was more strongly correlated to the participants’ level of consciousness than the oscillatory component. Anesthesia caused a steepening of the spectral slope across participants. Importantly, the change in spectral slope positively correlated with the individual participant’s level of responsiveness. The spectral slope during exposure to anesthesia contained prognostic value for individuals with DOC. The anesthetic-induced change in aperiodic EEG was accompanied by loss of information-richness and a reduction in network criticality. The aperiodic EEG component in individuals with DOC has been historically neglected; this research highlights the importance of considering this measure for future research investigating brain mechanisms underlying consciousness.Significance StatementThe analysis of human EEG has traditionally focused on oscillatory power, which is characterized by peaks above a broadband, aperiodic component in the EEG power spectral density. This study is the first to demonstrate the value of the aperiodic EEG component and specifically, its reaction to propofol anesthesia for assessing individual’s level of, and capacity for, consciousness. Our results demonstrates that the pharmacological induced change in the aperiodic component accompanies the brain’s loss of network criticality and complexity. Most importantly, the magnitude of brain response to propofol anesthesia relies on an individual’s pre-anesthetic level of consciousness. Whereas the aperiodic EEG component has been historically neglected; this research highlights the necessity of considering this measure for future research that seeks to understand the neurophysiological underpinnings of consciousness.

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How critical is brain criticality?

Cited by 137 publications

References 175 publications

Self-organized criticality for dendritic readiness potential

Self-organized criticality for dendritic readiness potential

Spontaneous neuronal avalanches as a correlate of access consciousness

Aperiodic brain activity and response to anesthesia vary in disorders of consciousness

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