Criticality of the Brain and Criticality of Art

Abstract

The ability of our brain to respond to small extrinsic or intrinsic perturbations points out that the brain as a complex system is operating close to instability, or criticality, because any system at the critical state has a very high sensitivity to tiny perturbations [Haken 1996]. Per Bak gives another reason why the brain should be critical: the input signal must be able to access everything that is stored in the brain. The brain cannot be in subcritical state. In this case input signal would be access to only a limited part of information. But the brain cannot be supercritical either: in this case any input would cause an explosive process in the brain, and connect the input with everything that is stored in the brain [Bak 1996]. Hence, the waking brain must operate strongly at the critical state, where a neural network reveals Weber-Fechner logarithmic law and Steves power law [Kinouchi 2006]. The critical point maximizes information transmission within a neural network.