Hybrid-type synchronization transitions: Where incipient oscillations, scale-free avalanches, and bistability live together
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Show full item recordEditorial
American Physical Society
Date
2021-06-21Referencia bibliográfica
Buendía, V... [et al.] (2021). Hybrid-type synchronization transitions: Where incipient oscillations, scale-free avalanches, and bistability live together. Physical Review Research, 3(2), 023224. DOI: [10.1103/PhysRevResearch.3.023224]
Sponsorship
Spanish Ministry and Agencia Estatal de investigacion (AEI) FIS2017-84256-P; Consejera de Conocimiento, Investigacin Universidad, Junta de Andaluca; European Commission A-FQM-175-UGR18 SOMM17/6105/UGR; INFN BIOPHYS project; Cariparma through the TEACH IN PARMA projectAbstract
The human cortex is never at rest but in a state of sparse and noisy neural activity that can be detected at broadly diverse resolution scales. It has been conjectured that such a state is best described as a critical dynamical process-whose nature is still not fully understood-where scale-free avalanches of activity emerge at the edge of a phase transition. In particular, some works suggest that this is most likely a synchronization transition, separating synchronous from asynchronous phases. Here, by investigating a simplified model of coupled excitable oscillators describing the cortex dynamics at a mesoscopic level, we investigate the possible nature of such a synchronization phase transition. Within our modeling approach we conclude that-in order to reproduce all key empirical observations, such as scale-free avalanches and bistability, on which fundamental functional advantages rely-the transition to collective oscillatory behavior needs to be of an unconventional hybrid type, with mixed features of type-I and type-II excitability, opening the possibility for a particularly rich dynamical repertoire.