The critical brain hypothesis states that the brain can benefit from operating close to a second-order phase transition. While it has been shown that several computational aspects of sensory processing (e.g., sensitivity to input) can be optimal in this regime, it is still unclear whether these computational benefits of criticality can be leveraged by neural systems performing behaviorally relevant computations. To address this question, we investigate signatures of criticality in networks optimized to perform efficient coding. We consider a spike-coding network of leaky integrate-and-fire neurons with synaptic transmission delays. Previously, it was shown that the performance of such networks varies non-monotonically with the noise amplitude. Interestingly, we find that in the vicinity of the optimal noise level for efficient coding, the network dynamics exhibit some signatures of criticality, namely, scale-free dynamics of the spiking and the presence of crackling noise relation. This result suggests that two influential, and previously disparate theories of neural processing optimization (efficient coding and criticality) may be intimately related.
Contact: Shervin Safavi, neuroprinciplist@gmail.com
Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany and Max Plank Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Tübingen, Germany
Additional Authors:
Matthew Chalk, Institut de la Vision, matthew.chalk@inserm.fr; Nikos K. Logothetis, Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, nikos.logothetis@tuebingne.mpg.de; Anna Levina, University of Tübingen, anna.levina@uni-tuebingen.de