Self-regulated critical brain dynamics originate from high frequency-band activity in the MEG.
PLoS One January 1, 2020 Stefan Dürschmid, Christoph Reichert, Nike Walter et al.
Brain activity in the resting state shows scale-free, critical dynamics balanced between order and disorder, but a direct link to cognition has been missing. Using MEG recordings during mindfulness meditation, the authors found that scale-free near-critical dynamics originated only from broad-band high-frequency activity above 100 Hz, which is associated with action potential firing. During meditation, avalanche dynamics shifted toward a critical point by reducing neural noise, and the topography of avalanches differed from rest. Self-regulated attention during meditation can serve as a control parameter for criticality in scale-free brain dynamics.