Category: BrainCrit 2022 – Talk

By Henrik Jensen (London, UK). We will briefly recall the description of behaviour near a critical equilibrium phase transition, i.e., when the correlation length diverges to infinity leading to universal behaviour captured by exponents determined by the symmetry and dimensionality of the system but otherwise fixed and constant in the vicinity of the critical region. … Continue reading Keynote 2022#Day3 – Henrik JENSEN – What Happens in the Vicinity of the Critical Point and How Do You Get There?

By Pawel Romanczuk (Berlin, Germany). Collective behavior of animals is a fascinating example of self-organization in biology, which together with the underlying social interactions are believed to have emerged from evolutionary adaptations. Thus, it is widely assumed that collective behavior confers fitness benefits to individuals, for example by enabling exchange of social information, promoting accurate … Continue reading Talk 2022#Day3-8 – Pawel ROMANCZUK – Self-organization, Criticality and Collective Information Processing in Animal Groups

By Mac Shine (Sydney, Australia). Decades of neurobiological research have disclosed the diverse manners in which the response properties of neurons are dynamically modulated to support adaptive cognitive functions. This neuromodulation is achieved through alterations in the biophysical properties of the neuron. However, changes in cognitive function do not arise directly from the modulation of … Continue reading Talk 2022#Day3-7 – Mac SHINE – Computational Models Link Cellular Mechanisms of Neuromodulation to Large-Scale Neural Dynamics

By Ad Aertsen (Freiburg, Germany). Spatio-temporal sequences of neuronal activity are observed in many brain regions in a variety of tasks and are thought to form the basis of meaningful behavior. However, mechanisms by which a neuronal network can generate spatiotemporal activity sequences have remained obscure. In my presentation I will present an overview of … Continue reading Keynote 2022#Day2 – Ad AERTSEN – Mechanisms Underlying the Generation of Spatiotemporal Sequences in Spiking Neuronal Networks

By Michelle Girvan (College Park, MD). Empirical evidence suggests that biological and technological networks may have evolved to operate near the tipping point between quiescence and large-scale perturbation amplification in order to maximize functionality. However, proximity to criticality as an explanation for observed power law distributions in a wide range of systems remains controversial, with … Continue reading Talk 2022#Day3-6 – Michelle GIRVAN – Brain-Inspired Machine Learning and the Advantages of Robust Critical-Like Dynamics

By Anna Levina (Tübingen, Germany). It is widely believed that some neuronal states are better suited for computations than others. For example, closeness to the critical state at the second-order phase transition was shown to be particularly suitable for computations in artificial systems. Alternatively, the balance of excitation and inhibition was also associated, i.e., with … Continue reading Talk 2022#Day3-5 – Anna LEVINA – Maintenance and Selection of Neuronal States Powered by the Self-Organization

By Arvind Kumar (Stockholm, Sweden). Across-trial variability is an ubiquitous feature of cortical activity. Across-trial variability is not fixed and depends on the stimulus and attentional shifts. Recently it has also become apparent that across-trial variability not only affects the stimulus response but also affects behavioral performance. In my talk I will discuss mechanisms that … Continue reading Talk 2022#Day3-4 – Arvind KUMAR – Role of Input Correlations in Shaping the Trial-By-Trial Variability in a Model of Neocortex

By Mauro Copelli (Recife, Brazil). The idea that the brain operates near a second-order phase transition has gained traction in the last two decades. Since the first experimental observation of neuronal avalanches in vitro, a putative connection has been established between brain dynamics and a critical branching process or, more generally, any process belonging to … Continue reading Talk 2022#Day3-3 – Mauro COPELLI – Criticality and Cortical States

By Lucilla De Arcangelis (Caserta, Italy). Recent evidence suggests that the alpha rhythm plays an active role in information processing, modulating behavioral and cognitive performance. However, the functional link between alpha activity and architecture of neuronal dynamics remains poorly understood. To address this question, here we study collective neural activity during resting wake and NREM … Continue reading Talk 2022#Day3-2 – Lucilla DE ARCANGELIS – Alpha Rhythm as a Pacemaker for Network Excitability

By Changsong Zhou (Hong Kong, PRC). The brain is highly energy consuming, therefore is under strong selective pressure to achieve cost- efficiency in both cortical connectivity and activity. Cortical neural circuits display highly irregular spiking in individual neurons but variably sized collective firing, oscillations and critical avalanches at the population level, all of which have … Continue reading Talk 2022#Day3-1 – Changsong ZHOU – Cost-Efficient Neural Dynamics from Sparse Irregular Spikes to Avalanches: Reconciling Multilevel Spontaneous and Evoked Activity in E-I Balanced Neural Networks at Criticality