Self-organized hierarchical structure in a plastic network of chaotic units

TL;DR

This paper investigates how a plastic network of chaotic units self-organizes into a dynamic hierarchical structure influenced by external input, with potential implications for understanding brain information processing.

Contribution

It demonstrates the spontaneous formation and reorganization of hierarchical structures in a plastic, chaotic network influenced by external input.

Findings

Hierarchical structures form spontaneously in weakly chaotic regimes.

The lifetime distribution of structures follows a power law.

Structures are continuously reorganized over time.

Abstract

Formation of a layered structure is studied in a globally coupled map of chaotic units with a plastic coupling strength that changes depending on the states of units globally and an external input. In the parameter region characterized by weakly chaotic and desynchronized dynamics, units spontaneously form a hierarchical structure due to the influence of the input, with regards to the coupling strength. This hierarchical structure is not fixed in time, and is successively reorganized. It is found that the distribution of lifetimes of the structure obeys a power law. The possible relevance of the present result to information processing in the brain is briefly discussed.