2007/01/11 by Dranreb Earl Juanico, Juanico, Dranreb Earl
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Environmental Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Adaptation and Self-Organizing Systems (nlin.AO) #Ecosystem dynamics and resilience #FOS: Biological sciences #FOS: Physical sciences #Neurons and Cognition (q-bio.NC) #nlin.AO #q-bio.NC
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.nlin/0701020
submitted to Europhys. Lett. (6 pages, 4 figures)
arxiv created 2007/01/11 · openalex publication_date 2007/01/11 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
A self-organising model is proposed to explain the criticality in cortical networks deduced from recent observations of neuronal avalanches. Prevailing understanding of self-organised criticality (SOC) dictates that conservation of energy is essential to its emergence. Neuronal networks however are inherently non-conservative as demonstrated by microelectrode recordings. The model presented here shows that SOC can arise in non-conservative systems as well, if driven internally. Evidence suggests that synaptic background activity provides the internal drive for non-conservative cortical networks to achieve and maintain a critical state. SOC is robust to any degree η∈ (0,1] of background activity when the network size N is large enough such that ηN∼ 103. For small networks, a strong background leads to epileptiform activity, consistent with neurophysiological knowledge about epilepsy.