2022/09/06 by Fosque, L. J., Alipour, A., Zare, M. +3 · 3 citations
#Adaptation and Self-Organizing Systems (nlin.AO) #Biological Physics (physics.bio-ph) #FOS: Biological sciences #FOS: Physical sciences #Neurons and Cognition (q-bio.NC) #Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft)
paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2209.02592
Ageing impacts the brain's structural and functional organization and over time leads to various disorders, such as Alzheimer's disease and cognitive impairment. The process also impacts sensory function, bringing about a general slowing in various perceptual and cognitive functions. Here, we analyze the Cambridge Centre for Ageing and Neuroscience (Cam-CAN) resting-state magnetoencephalography (MEG) dataset -- the largest ageing cohort available -- in light of the quasicriticality framework, a novel organizing principle for brain functionality which relates information processing and scaling properties of brain activity to brain connectivity and stimulus. Examination of the data using this framework reveals interesting correlations with age and gender of test subjects. Using simulated data as verification, our results suggest a link between changes to brain connectivity due to ageing, and increased vulnerability to distraction from irrelevant information. Our findings suggest a platform to develop biomarkers of neurological health.