Signatures of criticality in the physical structure of the brain

The highly complex structure of the brain is integral to its function, yet many aspects of the physical structure of the brain and how they aid its function remain poorly understood. Recent experimental and computational advances have enabled the three dimensional reconstruction of millimeter-scale brain volumes of multiple organisms at the cellular level [1-3], thereby allowing for detailed investigation of the structure of brain tissue.

Here we utilize these datasets to examine physical properties of the structure of the brain using techniques from statistical physics. We demonstrate that the physical structure of the brain displays features associated with structural criticality in physical systems, including long-range correlations and fractal properties. We show that the associated scaling exponents are consistent across the brains investigated, indicating potential structural universality in the brain.

[1] C. Shan Xu, et al., bioRxiv 2020.01.21.911859 (2020)

[2] MICrONs Consortium, et al., bioRxiv 2021.07.28.454025 (2021)

[3] A. Shapson-Coe, et al., bioRxiv 2021.05.29.446289 (2021)