AUTHOR=Solovey Guillermo , Miller Kai J., Ojemann Jeffrey , Magnasco Marcelo O., Cecchi Guillermo A. TITLE=Self-Regulated Dynamical Criticality in Human ECoG JOURNAL=Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience VOLUME=6 YEAR=2012 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/integrative-neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fnint.2012.00044 DOI=10.3389/fnint.2012.00044 ISSN=1662-5145 ABSTRACT=

Mounting experimental and theoretical results indicate that neural systems are poised near a critical state. In human subjects, however, most evidence comes from functional MRI studies, an indirect measurement of neuronal activity with poor temporal resolution. Electrocorticography (ECoG) provides a unique window into human brain activity: each electrode records, with high temporal resolution, the activity resulting from the sum of the local field potentials of ∼105 neurons. We show that the human brain ECoG recordings display features of self-regulated dynamical criticality: dynamical modes of activation drift around the critical stability threshold, moving in and out of the unstable region and equilibrating the global dynamical state at a very fast time scale. Moreover, the analysis also reveals differences between the resting state and a motor task, associated with increased stability of a fraction of the dynamical modes.