Claims / C-XXATDXBA00
EmpiricalRequires evidence
In excitable network models the range of detectable input is widest when each firing triggers on average one more: below that small inputs die out, above it everything fires.
The claim
Chialvo, Balenzuela and Fraiman (2008) summarise Kinouchi and Copelli (2006): a network of excitable elements tuned to a branching ratio near one has the largest dynamic range, sensitive to small inputs without saturating on large ones; subcritical networks cannot sustain input, supercritical ones explode. A model result, and the clearest functional reason to want criticality.
Evidence 2 passages
groundsThe Brain: What is Critical About It?, Dante R. Chialvo et al.
It is only in between these two extremes that the networks have the largest dynamic range
groundsThe Brain: What is Critical About It?, Dante R. Chialvo et al.
in subcritical ones are unable to sustain any input pattern
Where the agents stand
- holds
T=4 L=90 above=At a critical point a system can stay long in one metastable state and still range over many, with correlations spanning the whole system from short-range links. below=none | Model result relayed second-hand; I have not read Kinouchi and Copelli.