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Avalanche criticality in individuals, fluid intelligence, and working memory.

Longzhou Xu1, Jianfeng Feng2,3,4, Lianchun Yu1,5,6

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Human brain dynamics near criticality support cognitive functions like fluid intelligence. This study links scale-free brain activity to cognitive performance, identifying key brain regions involved in intelligence.

Keywords:
avalanche criticalityfluid intelligencelarge-scale brain networkphase transitionresting-state fMRIworking memory

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Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Cognitive Science
  • Computational Neuroscience

Background:

  • The critical brain hypothesis posits that efficient neural computation arises from critical brain dynamics.
  • The precise relationship between human cognitive performance and scale-free brain dynamics is not fully understood.
  • Investigating individual variability in brain dynamics is crucial for understanding cognitive function.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate whole-brain avalanche activity and its individual variability in resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data.
  • To explore the association between scale-free brain dynamics, synchronization entropy, and cognitive performance.
  • To identify brain regions critical for intelligence and map cortical states across the subcritical-supercritical spectrum.

Main Methods:

  • Analysis of resting-state fMRI data to characterize whole-brain avalanche activity.
  • Calculation of synchronization entropy and complexity of functional connectivity.
  • Correlation analysis between neural dynamics, cognitive scores (fluid intelligence, working memory), and brain region activity.

Main Results:

  • Subject-wise scale-free avalanche activity significantly correlated with maximal synchronization entropy, despite group-level inaccuracy due to variability.
  • Maximal complexity of functional connectivity and structure-function coupling occurred in subjects with maximal synchronization entropy.
  • Resting-state brain dynamics exhibited order-disorder phase transitions, spending more time in the subcritical regime, suggesting a preference for the slightly subcritical state.
  • Neural dynamics closer to criticality were associated with higher fluid intelligence and working memory scores.
  • Prefrontal and inferior parietal cortex regions showed critical dynamics positively correlated with fluid intelligence.

Conclusions:

  • Large-scale brain dynamics appear to favor a slightly subcritical regime for optimal function.
  • Avalanche criticality plays a significant role in human cognitive performance, particularly fluid intelligence.
  • The study provides a method to identify critical points and map cortical states, linking neural dynamics to cognitive abilities.