Landau–Ginzburg theory of cortex dynamics: Scale-free avalanches emerge at the edge of synchronization

In short

The authors built a simplified mathematical model of the cortex that includes randomness and space to study how neural activity patterns form. They found that scale-free avalanches appear not when the brain switches from quiet to active, but specifically at the point where oscillations begin to synchronize. This matters because it offers a simple framework to explain diverse brain states like sleep cycles without assuming traditional criticality is the only driver of large-scale activity.

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