Self-organized criticality (SOC) refers to the ability of complex systems to evolve toward a
second-order phase transition at which interactions between system components lead to …

Neuronal membrane excitability must be resilient to perturbations that can take place over
timescales from milliseconds to months (or even years in long-lived animals). A great deal of …

The human brain has the capacity to rapidly change state, and in epilepsy these state
changes can be catastrophic, resulting in loss of consciousness, injury and even death …

A regular heartbeat is essential to vertebrate life. In the mature heart, this function is driven
by an anatomically localized pacemaker. By contrast, pacemaking capability is broadly …

Fracture characteristics of rock and rational structural design are necessary to ensure the
stability of underground rock engineering. Early warning of rock damage is a hot and …

Spontaneous fluctuations in neuronal activity emerge at many spatial and temporal scales in
cortex. Population measures found these fluctuations to organize as scale-invariant …

Self-organized criticality has been proposed to be a universal mechanism for the emergence
of scale-free dynamics in many complex systems, and possibly in the brain. While such …

Slowness of thought is not necessarily a handicap but could be a signature of optimal brain
function. Emerging evidence shows that neuroanatomical and dynamical constraints of the …

Many real-world systems undergo abrupt changes in dynamics as they move across critical
points, often with dramatic and irreversible consequences. Much existing theory on …

Theory and observation tell us that many complex systems exhibit tipping points—thresholds
involving an abrupt and irreversible transition to a contrasting dynamical regime. Such …