# Synaptic Noise Facilitates the Emergence of Self-Organized Criticality in the Caenorhabditis elegans Neuronal Network

## TL;DR

This study shows that synaptic noise, modeled as probabilistic transmission failures, can drive the neuronal network of C. elegans towards self-organized criticality, explaining observed neuronal avalanches.

## Contribution

It introduces a simple neuron model incorporating activity-dependent synaptic failure probabilities to demonstrate noise-induced SOC emergence.

## Key findings

- Synaptic noise selects active subnetworks exhibiting power-law avalanches.
- Neuronal avalanches follow a power-law distribution due to synaptic failures.
- Model suggests physiological role of synaptic noise in SOC phenomena.

## Abstract

Avalanches with power-law distributed size parameters have been observed in neuronal networks. This observation might be a manifestation of the self-organized criticality (SOC). Yet, the physiological mechanicsm of this behavior is currently unknown. Describing synaptic noise as transmission failures mainly originating from the probabilistic nature of neurotransmitter release, this study investigates the potential of this noise as a mechanism for driving the functional architecture of the neuronal networks towards SOC. To this end, a simple finite state neuron model, with activity dependent and synapse specific failure probabilities, was built based on the known anatomical connectivity data of the nematode Ceanorhabditis elegans. Beginning from random values, it was observed that synaptic noise levels picked out a set of synapses and consequently an active subnetwork which generates power-law distributed neuronal avalanches. The findings of this study brings up the possibility that synaptic failures might be a component of physiological processes underlying SOC in neuronal networks.