Statistical physics of cognition

A single avalanche of electrical activity, sweeping across roughly ten thousand neurons at once, may hold the key to how the brain thinks. This project tackles a long-standing gap in neuroscience. For years, researchers have observed that brain circuits operate near a special point called "criticality"—a state where systems are poised between order and chaos, and where avalanches of activity propagate in characteristic patterns. But no one has been able to link that physical state directly to cognition—to actual thinking, remembering, or deciding. The team will bridge that gap by simulating neurons from the sub-cellular level up to whole-brain networks, and by using a new imaging technique to watch avalanches unfold in large populations of neurons while animals perform a cognitive task. This is fundamental science. It asks how the brain’s physical architecture gives rise to thought, without promising an immediate medical or technological payoff. If it succeeds, it could reshape our understanding of what goes wrong in conditions such as epilepsy, schizophrenia, or dementia—where the brain’s critical balance may be disrupted. Similar fundamental work on criticality in physics has already influenced fields from materials science to earthquake prediction; a deeper grasp of how the brain tunes itself could one day inform new diagnostics or therapies for neurological disorders.