Parabolic avalanche scaling in the synchronization of cortical cell assemblies.

ABSTRACT: Neurons in the cerebral cortex fire coincident action potentials during ongoing activity and in response to sensory inputs. These synchronized cell assemblies are fundamental to cortex function, yet basic dynamical aspects of their size and duration are largely unknown. Using 2-photon imaging of neurons in the superficial cortex of awake mice, we show that synchronized cell assemblies organize as scale-invariant avalanches that quadratically grow with duration. The quadratic avalanche scaling was only found for correlated neurons, required temporal coarse-graining to compensate for spatial subsampling of the imaged cortex, and suggested cortical dynamics to be critical as demonstrated in simulations of balanced E/I-networks. The corresponding time course of an inverted parabola with expone

SUBMITTER: Capek E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10156782 | biostudies-literature | 2023 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature