Ising-like dynamics in large-scale functional brain networks

TL;DR

This study compares human brain fMRI networks with 2D Ising model simulations, finding that at critical temperature their statistical properties align, suggesting brain dynamics may operate near a critical point.

Contribution

It demonstrates that large-scale brain networks resemble Ising model networks at criticality, supporting the hypothesis of brain functioning near a critical phase transition.

Findings

Brain fMRI networks are similar to Ising model networks at critical temperature.

Statistical properties of the networks match closely at criticality.

Results support the idea that brain dynamics operate near a critical point.

Abstract

Brain "rest" is defined -more or less unsuccessfully- as the state in which there is no explicit brain input or output. This work focuss on the question of whether such state can be comparable to any known \emph{dynamical} state. For that purpose, correlation networks from human brain Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) are constrasted with correlation networks extracted from numerical simulations of the Ising model in 2D, at different temperatures. For the critical temperature $T_c$, striking similarities appear in the most relevant statistical properties, making the two networks indistinguishable from each other. These results are interpreted here as lending support to the conjecture that the dynamics of the functioning brain is near a critical point.