A free-energy principle has been proposed recently that accounts for action, perception and
learning. This Review looks at some key brain theories in the biological (for example, neural …

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 …

A large repertoire of spatiotemporal activity patterns in the brain is the basis for adaptive
behaviour. Understanding the mechanism by which the brain's hundred billion neurons and …

This paper presents a heuristic proof (and simulations of a primordial soup) suggesting that
life—or biological self-organization—is an inevitable and emergent property of any (ergodic) …

Sleep function remains controversial. Individual perspectives frame the issue of sleep
function differently. We briefly illustrate how sleep measurement and the evolution, tissue …

The neural criticality hypothesis states that the brain may be poised in a critical state at a
boundary between different types of dynamics. Theoretical and experimental studies show …

Relatively recent work has reported that networks of neurons can produce avalanches of
activity whose sizes follow a power law distribution. This suggests that these networks may …

Self-organized criticality (SOC) refers to the ability of complex systems to evolve toward a
second-order phase transition at which interactions between system components lead to …

Rapidly growing empirical evidence supports the hypothesis that the cortex operates near
criticality. Although the confirmation of this hypothesis would mark a significant advance in …

Criticality has gained widespread interest in neuroscience as an attractive framework for
understanding the character and functional implications of variability in brain activity. The …