Self-organized criticality model for brain plasticity.
Networks of living neurons exhibit an avalanche mode of activity, experimentally found in organotypic cultures. Here we present a model that is based on self-organized criticality and takes into account brain plasticity, which is able to reproduce the spectrum of electroencephalograms (EEG). The model consists of an electrical network with threshold firing and activity-dependent synapse strengths. The system exhibits an avalanche activity in a power-law distribution. The analysis of the power spectra of the electrical signal reproduces very robustly the power-law behavior with the exponent 0.8, experimentally measured in EEG spectra. The same value of the exponent is found on small-world lattices and for leaky neurons, indicating that universality holds for a wide class of brain models.
de Arcangelis
Lucilla
L
Dept. of Information Engineering and CNISM, Second University of Naples, 81031 Aversa (CE), Italy.
Perrone-Capano
Carla
C
Herrmann
Hans J
HJ
D000465:Algorithms; D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D004569:Electroencephalography; D008959:Models, Neurological; D009415:Nerve Net; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology*; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted; D013569:Synapses / Q000502:physiology*