The criticality hypothesis holds that the brain operates near criticality, in the dynamics systems sense. We argue that maintaining this regime requires substantial resources, and that this maintenance, and is breakdowns, account for a variety of phenomena that are otherwise difficult to account for.

Bio:

Prof Barak Pearlmutter received a BS in Mathematics from CWRU, a PhD in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University, postdoctoral training in Neuroscience at Yale University, and spent several years in Industry at Siemens Corporate Research and on the faculty at the University of New Mexico. He is currently in the Department of Computer Science at Maynooth University. His main current research interests are two-fold: understanding information processing in the brain, and figuring out out how to build artificial systems that exhibit brain-like performance. The focus of the former is currently on exploring criticality in the brain, while the later is upon building mathematical formalizations and programming languages that support the construction of complex adaptive systems.