The brain is a distributive computational system with many neurons working together to create collective patterns. Research over the past couple of decades has indicated that the brain may operate at the “edge of chaos,” called a critical state. In biology, if the system of interest shows specific behavior, we try to explain it through the lens of evolution. So what are the evolutionary benefits of being in a critical state? The critical brain hypothesis posits that the brain functions near critical states to optimize its information-processing capacity. In this talk, I will introduce the hypothesis and describe our work on synergistic information processing on a spiking neural network.
Demian Cho, assistant professor of physics at Albion College, will join us to share this fascinating research. Join us on Friday, November 4, from 12 to 1 p.m. in Hayes 211/213 to hear the presentation. Lunch will be available in Hayes 203 from 11:45 to 12:15. We hope to see you there!