Neurobiological Determinants of Self-Organized Criticality in Neuronal Avalanches

Over the last two decades, self-organized criticality in brain activity has been widely discussed. The scale-free activation patterns, called neuronal avalanches, provide evidence for the postulation that the brain is operating in a critical state. Several neurobiological properties found in experiments are indicated to be important parameters in neuronal avalanches. Here, we developed a dynamic neural network model including these neurobiological properties, such as the balance between excitation and inhibition, the synaptic delay times, and the spatial connection structure, to theoretically test and verify the possibility of these neurobiological properties as the control parameters in tuning the network through criticality in neuronal avalanches.