Criticality is the singular state of complex systems poised at the brink of a phase transition
between order and randomness. Such systems display remarkable information-processing …

A celebrated and controversial hypothesis suggests that some biological systems—parts,
aspects, or groups of them—may extract important functional benefits from operating at the …

The neural criticality hypothesis states that the brain may be poised in a critical state at a
boundary between different types of dynamics. Theoretical and experimental studies show …

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) techniques have contributed significantly to
our understanding of brain function. Current methods are based on the analysis of gradual …

Relatively recent work has reported that networks of neurons can produce avalanches of
activity whose sizes follow a power law distribution. This suggests that these networks may …

The tasks of neural computation are remarkably diverse. To function optimally, neuronal
networks have been hypothesized to operate near a nonequilibrium critical point. However …

Spontaneous neuronal activity is an important property of the cerebral cortex but its
spatiotemporal organization and dynamical framework remain poorly understood. Studies in …

Power laws and distributions with heavy tails are common features of many complex
systems. Examples are the distribution of earthquake magnitudes, solar flare intensities and …

In self-organized critical (SOC) systems avalanche size distributions follow power-laws.
Power-laws have also been observed for neural activity, and so it has been proposed that …

Highlights•The criticality hypothesis has received major attention in the past 25 years.•We
revise and discuss the experimental and conceptual controversies.•We propose that cortical …