The best functional condition of the human brain, known as criticality, has now been better understood by a study team via the use of mathematical modelling. Their findings, which have been published in Scientific Reports, represent a crucial step toward information processing that is biologically inspired and new, highly effective computer technology.
“Supercomputers do some jobs better than humans, such as in the area of artificial intelligence. However, they are unable to handle the range of daily jobs, such as driving a vehicle initially, followed by playing music and telling a tale at a gathering in the evening, “Hermann Kohlstedt, an expert in nanoelectronics, adds. Additionally, modern cell phones and PCs still use a tremendous amount of electricity.
While the average daily energy use of the human brain is about 25 watts, Kohlstedt argues, “These are not sustainable technologies.” Their multidisciplinary research network, “Neurotronics: Bio-inspired Information Pathways,” aims to create new electrical parts for computer designs that use less energy. The alliance of engineering, life, and natural sciences researches how the human brain functions and how it has evolved for this reason.
The best performance is achievable here, close to pandemonium.
The brain uses a network of around 86 billion neurons to process information. They transmit information through synapses and axons in the form of voltage pulses, either concurrently or independently of one another (“synchronization”).
The “critical brain hypothesis,” a neurobiology thesis, contends that the human brain processes information most rapidly and effectively while it is in the “phase transition” between two states. MRI or electroencephalography may also be used to identify this intermediate condition, referred to as “criticality” (EEG).
Because the brain can respond to outside factors more sensitively and in a wider range of ways in this highly complex state, it constantly strives to reach it. “The brain is on the verge of chaos because even little exterior triggers may suddenly set off vast ensembles of neurons. Even to distant parts of the brain, information may be communicated exceptionally readily since it spreads like an avalanche “According to Kohlstedt. This makes a variety of responses possible.
in a network of artificial simulations
The researchers at CAU examined how this condition of criticality appears in both natural and synthetic networks in their most recent article. Up until recently, it was believed that only brain-based processes could account for this “self-organized criticality.” However, first author Dr. Petro Feketa, a member of CRC 1461 and the Chair of Automation and Control Engineering at CAU, notes that they were able to demonstrate for the first time that external forces, or the environment itself, also cause this state to be “imposed” on brain-like networks.
The scientists used mathematical modelling in a synthetic network of nonlinear oscillators to achieve this. These circuits produce periodic voltage pulses that may synchronise, much like the neurons in a neural network. The connections between oscillators may also be altered. To complete tasks as swiftly and effectively as possible, the study team mimicked how the oscillators link throughout time as they interact with the environment.
The network frequently reached a crucial condition resembling the brain. This was especially unexpected since the criticality trait wasn’t there at first and we hadn’t intended to get it, according to Feketa.
Evolutionary biology makes sense of a wide variety of responses
“This discovery makes perfect sense from an evolutionary biology perspective. Because of the diversity of our surroundings, the internal dynamics of our brain have been moulded to allow the state of criticality to provide the widest possible range of solutions for a variety of tasks “the chair of automation and control engineering at CAU, prof. dr. Thomas Meurer, explains.
As a result, the brain has adjusted its level of criticality to the influences and rising demands of the constantly changing environment. Simply stated, according to Kohlstedt, “our brain evolves with its tasks—even more than we had expected.”
