Critical Slowing Down Governs the Transition to Neuron Spiking
Many complex systems have been found to exhibit critical transitions, or so-called tipping points, which are sudden changes to a qualitatively different system state. These changes can profoundly impact the functioning of a system ranging from controlled state switching to a catastrophic break-down;...
Main Authors: | , , , |
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Format: | Online |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Public Library of Science
2015
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Online Access: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4338190/ |
Summary: | Many complex systems have been found to exhibit critical transitions, or so-called tipping points, which are sudden changes to a qualitatively different system state. These changes can profoundly impact the functioning of a system ranging from controlled state switching to a catastrophic break-down; signals that predict critical transitions are therefore highly desirable. To this end, research efforts have focused on utilizing qualitative changes in markers related to a system’s tendency to recover more slowly from a perturbation the closer it gets to the transition—a phenomenon called critical slowing down. The recently studied scaling of critical slowing down offers a refined path to understand critical transitions: to identify the transition mechanism and improve transition prediction using scaling laws. |
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