Bridging Neuronal Avalanches and Crucial Events: Evidence for Temporal Criticality in EEG

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Complex Systems
• Statistical Physics

Background:

• Neuronal avalanches (NA) are studied as self-organized criticality (SOC) in neural systems.
• The relationship between NA and crucial events (CE), indicative of self-organized temporal criticality (SOTC), is unexplored.

Purpose of the Study:

• To provide empirical evidence that NA exhibit CE characteristics.
• To investigate the link between NA and CE using power-law scaling and renewal properties.
• To explore the implications for neural adaptability and neurological disorders.

Main Methods:

• Analyzed EEG data from 109 healthy participants, 11 TBI patients, and 47 subjects performing cognitive tasks.
• Examined inter-avalanche intervals for inverse power-law (IPL) distribution (τ).
• Validated power-law fits using Kolmogorov-Smirnov tests and log-likelihood comparisons; confirmed renewal dynamics via correlation analysis.

Main Results:

• Inter-avalanche intervals followed an IPL distribution (τ), validating the NA-CE link.
• Strong correlation between τ and CE exponent µ (r =0.38-0.63, p < 0.05) confirmed shared power-law dynamics.
• Inverse correlation between τ and SNZ (r = -0.18 to -0.45) revealed a metastable trade-off in excitation-inhibition balance.

Conclusions:

• Unifies NA and CE under the SOTC framework, offering novel insights into brain criticality.
• Altered τ and SNZ in TBI reflect disrupted criticality, serving as potential diagnostic biomarkers.
• The inverse τ-SNZ correlation in TBI suggests impaired neural balance, measurable via EEG for monitoring and interventions.