A celebrated and controversial hypothesis suggests that some biological systems—parts,
aspects, or groups of them—may extract important functional benefits from operating at the …

Computational neuroscience has a long-standing tradition of investigating the
consequences of excitatory synaptic plasticity. In contrast, the functions of inhibitory plasticity …

Spiking neural networks (SNNs) possess energy-efficient potential due to event-based
computation. However, supervised training of SNNs remains a challenge as spike activities …

The connections in networks of neurons are heavy-tailed, with a small number of neurons
connected much more strongly than the vast majority of pairs. However, it remains unclear …

In vitro and in vivo spiking activity clearly differ. Whereas networks in vitro develop strong
bursts separated by periods of very little spiking activity, in vivo cortical networks show …

How the cerebral cortex operates near a critical phase transition point for optimum
performance. Individual neurons have limited computational powers, but when they work …

Dendritic spines are crucial for excitatory synaptic transmission as the size of a spine head
correlates with the strength of its synapse. The distribution of spine head sizes follows a …

The extraordinary diversity of excitatory synapse sizes is commonly attributed to activity-
dependent processes that drive synaptic growth and diminution. Recent studies also point to …

Many experimental results, both in vivo and in vitro, support the idea that the brain cortex
operates near a critical point and at the same time works as a reservoir of precise …

Criticality is hypothesized as a physical mechanism underlying efficient transitions between
cortical states and remarkable information-processing capacities in the brain. While …