Criticality is the singular state of complex systems poised at the brink of a phase transition
between order and randomness. Such systems display remarkable information-processing …

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 …

Cognitive function requires the coordination of neural activity across many scales, from
neurons and circuits to large-scale networks. As such, it is unlikely that an explanatory …

The past twenty-five years have seen a strong increase in the number of publications related
to criticality in different areas of neuroscience. The potential of criticality to explain various …

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 …

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 …

Homeostatic mechanisms stabilize neuronal activity in vivo, but whether this process gives
rise to balanced network dynamics is unknown. Here, we continuously monitored the …

Since the first measurements of neuronal avalanches, the critical brain hypothesis has
gained traction. However, if the brain is critical, what is the phase transition? For several …

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 …

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 …