title: Quasicritical brain dynamics on a nonequilibrium Widom line.
abstract: Is the brain really operating at a critical point? We study the nonequilibrium properties of a neural network which models the dynamics of the neocortex and argue for optimal quasicritical dynamics on the Widom line where the correlation length and information transmission are optimized. We simulate the network and introduce an analytical mean-field approximation, characterize the nonequilibrium phase transitions, and present a nonequilibrium phase diagram, which shows that in addition to an ordered and disordered phase, the system exhibits a "quasiperiodic" phase corresponding to synchronous activity in simulations, which may be related to the pathological synchronization associated with epilepsy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana 47405, USA.
authors.forename: Rashid V
authors.initials: RV
authors.lastname: Williams-García
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana 47405, USA.
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Moore
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana 47405, USA.
authors.forename: John M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Beggs
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana 47405, USA.
authors.forename: Gerardo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ortiz
mesh_terms: D001921:Brain / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D008959:Models, Neurological; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology; D013269:Stochastic Processes