Changes in functional connectivity preserve scale-free neuronal and behavioral dynamics.

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Statistical Physics
• Computational Neuroscience

Background:

• The critical brain hypothesis suggests the brain self-tunes to a critical point to maximize neuronal response repertoire.
• Robustness of this critical regime to changes in functional connectivity is a key unsolved challenge.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate whether neuronal dynamics and information processing remain robust despite alterations in functional connectivity.
• To explore the brain's adaptive mechanisms for maintaining optimal information transmission.

Main Methods:

• Utilized the psychedelic compound ibogaine to induce significant changes in functional connectivity in the mouse retrosplenial cortex.
• Analyzed neuronal avalanche activity and behavioral dynamics for scale-free statistics.

Main Results:

• Functional connectivity in the retrosplenial cortex was fundamentally altered by ibogaine.
• Scale-free statistics of neuronal avalanches and behavioral dynamics persisted despite altered connectivity.

Conclusions:

• Neuronal information propagation is robust to significant changes in functional organization of neuronal subpopulations.
• Adaptive functional networks may contribute to the brain's optimal information transmission capabilities.