ArticleNature communications2023
Critical dynamics arise during structured information presentation within embodied in vitro neuronal networks.
Article in Nature communications, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 32 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
32 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Is criticality a unified setpoint of brain function?Neuron · 2025Pooled it
- Emergence of Deviance Detection in Cortical Cultures Through Maturation, Criticality, and Early Experience.The European journal of neuroscience · 2026Article
- Critical neuronal avalanches arise from excitation-inhibition balanced spontaneous activity.iScience · 2026Article
- Plant Cell-on-Chip (PCOC): Exploring the Electrical Modulation Capability of Plant Cells.Micromachines · 2026Article
- CASCADE: criticality avalanche spike cross-platform analysis detection engine, a multi-manufacturer MEA bash analysis pipeline.Bioinformatics (Oxford, England) · 2026Article
- Hippocampal criticality tracks cognitive demand and shifts with memory impairment.Communications biology · 2026Article
- Mapping Executive Function Performance Based on Resting-State EEG in Healthy Individuals: A Systematic and Mechanistic Review.Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Review
- Multi-organoid loop cerebral connectoids exhibit enhanced neuronal network dynamics and sequence-specific entrainment.Communications biology · 2026Article
- Views on the distribution of consciousness influence ethical judgements toward brain organoids as biological computers: an exploratory study.Neuroscience of consciousness · 2026Article
- Heavy-tailed update distributions arise from information-driven self-organization in nonequilibrium learning.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Adaptive proximity to criticality underlies amplification of ultra-slow fluctuations during free recall.PLoS computational biology · 2025Article
- Harnessing Intelligence from Brain Cells In Vitro.The Neuroscientist : a review journal bringing neurobiology, neurology and psychiatry · 2025Review
- Advances in large-scale electrophysiology with high-density microelectrode arrays.Lab on a chip · 2025Review
- Human neural organoid microphysiological systems show the building blocks necessary for basic learning and memory.Communications biology · 2025Article
- Drug treatment alters performance in a neural microphysiological system of information processing.Communications biology · 2025Article
- Biomimetic Visual Information Spatiotemporal Encoding Method for In Vitro Biological Neural Networks.Biomimetics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Starting a synthetic biological intelligence lab from scratch.Patterns (New York, N.Y.) · 2025Review
- Bioengineering innovations for neural organoids with enhanced fidelity and function.Cell stem cell · 2025Review
- Repetitive training enhances the pattern recognition capability of cultured neural networks.PLoS computational biology · 2025Article
- From microelectrode arrays to all-optical and multimodal neural interfaces: emerging platforms for spatiotemporal interrogation ofFrontiers in synaptic neuroscience · 2025Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Understanding how brains process information is an incredibly difficult task. Amongst the metrics characterising information processing in the brain, observations of dynamic near-critical states have generated significant interest. However, theoretical and experimental limitations associated with human and animal models have precluded a definite answer about when and why neural criticality arises with links from attention, to cognition, and even to consciousness. To explore this topic, we used an in vitro neural network of cortical neurons that was trained to play a simplified game of 'Pong' to demonstrate Synthetic Biological Intelligence (SBI). We demonstrate that critical dynamics emerge when neural networks receive task-related structured sensory input, reorganizing the system to a near-critical state. Additionally, better task performance correlated with proximity to critical dynamics. However, criticality alone is insufficient for a neuronal network to demonstrate learning in the absence of additional information regarding the consequences of previous actions. These findings offer compelling support that neural criticality arises as a base feature of incoming structured information processing without the need for higher order cognition.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.