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Poster F in Poster Session F: Thursday, August 6, 1:45 – 3:30 pm, Kimmel Center, Shorin & Rosenthal Rooms

Balancing the brain: Criticality supports flexibility while task engagement drives deviation from criticality

Li Xin Lim¹, Andrew Westbrook¹; ¹Rutgers University

Presenter: Li Xin Lim

The critical brain hypothesis proposes that brains function near a phase transition, that is neither excitation- nor inhibition-dominant, enabling adaptability. Stabilizing brain dynamics in the service of demanding tasks, however, may require deviating from criticality. We adapted a scale-invariance metric (d2), to track time-resolved deviations from neural criticality using EEG amplitude fluctuations to examine whether criticality underpins the stability-flexibility tradeoff in cognitive effort. First, d2 successfully tracks distance-from-criticality in a ground-truth model of excitatory-inhibitory networks. Next, EEG during a task-switching experiment showed that deviations from criticality correlate oppositely with flexibility and engagement. Participants voluntarily switch tasks more frequently when pre-trial activity nears criticality, while deviations are associated with task engagement, especially on demanding trials.

Topic Area: Methods, Tools, Theory & Neural Coding