A Critical Assessment of the Brain Criticality Hypothesis

TL;DR

This paper critically examines the brain criticality hypothesis, proposing that neuron-resource coupling might explain scale-invariant neural activity better than criticality.

Contribution

It suggests that memory effects from neuron-resource coupling could account for scale-invariant correlations without requiring criticality.

Findings

Memory-induced long-range order can produce scale-invariant correlations.

Coupling between neurons and resources may suffice to explain neural scale invariance.

Challenges the necessity of the criticality hypothesis in explaining neural data.

Abstract

A major unresolved question in Neuroscience is: What is the origin of the observed scale-invariant correlations in neural activity? Many researchers support the ``criticality hypothesis,'' which proposes that the brain operates near criticality, optimizing various information processing functions. However, the nature and behavior of criticality in cortical systems are still unclear. Alternatively, this opinion paper highlights that the coupling between neurons and slowly varying resources (acting as ``memory'') alone may be sufficient to generate a robust phase of neural activity with scale-invariant correlations. This memory-induced long-range order phase could provide a more natural explanation of the existing experimental data than the criticality hypothesis.