2010
Journal article  Open Access

Fractal complexity in spontaneous EEG metastable-state transitions: new vistas on integrated neural dynamics

Allegrini P., Paradisi P., Menicucci D., Gemignani A.

RTPs  Default Mode Network  Original Research  EEG  critical phenomena  Renewal processes  Physiology (medical)  Critical phenomena  Diffusion Entropy  renewal processes  self-organized criticality  Intermittency  entropy  ElectroEncephaloGrams  Scaling  Physiology  Integrated neural dynamics 

Resting-state EEG signals undergo Rapid Transition Processes (RTPs) that glue otherwise stationary epochs. We study the fractal properties of RTPs in space and time, supporting the hypothesis that the brain works at a critical state. We discuss how the global intermittent dynamics of collective excitations is linked to mentation, namely non-constrained non-task-oriented mental activity.

Source: Frontiers in physiology 1 (2010): 128–129. doi:10.3389/fphys.2010.00128

Publisher: Frontiers Research Foundation,, Lausanne , Svizzera


Alkire M. T. Hudetz A. G. Tononi G. (2008). Consciousness and anesthesia. Science 322, 876–880.10.1126/science.1149213 18988836
Allegrini P. Balocchi R. Chillemi S. Grigolini P. Hamilton P. Maestri R. Palatella L. Raffaelli G. (2003a). Long- and short-term analysis of heartbeat sequences: correlation with mortality risk in congestive heart failure patients. Phys. Rev. E Stat. Nonlin. Soft Matter Phys. 67, 062901.10.1103/PhysRevE.67.062901
Allegrini P. Benci V. Grigolini P. Hamilton P. Ignaccolo M. Menconi G. Palatella L. Raffaelli G. Scafetta N. Virgilio M. Yang J. (2003b). Compression and diffusion: a joint approach to detect complexity. Chaos Solitons Fractals 15, 517–535.10.1016/S0960-0779(02)00136-4
Allegrini P. Bologna M. Fronzoni L. Grigolini P. Silvestri L. (2009a). Experimental quenching of harmonic stimuli: universality of linear response theory. Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 030602.10.1103/PhysRevLett.103.030602
Allegrini P. Menicucci D. Bedini R. Fronzoni L. Gemignani A. Grigolini P. West B. J. Paradisi P. (2009b). Spontaneous brain activity as a source of ideal 1/f noise. Phys. Rev. E Stat. Nonlin. Soft Matter Phys. 80, 061914.10.1103/PhysRevE.80.061914
Allegrini P. Bologna M. Grigolini P. West B. J. (2007). Fluctuation-dissipation theorem for event-dominated processes. Phys. Rev. Lett. 99, 010603.10.1103/PhysRevLett.99.010603 17678145
Allegrini P. Grigolini P. Palatella L. (2004). Intermittency and scale-free networks: a dynamical model for human language complexity. Chaos Solitons Fractals 20, 95–105.10.1016/S0960-0779(03)00432-6
Bak P. Tang C. Wiesenfeld K. (1987). Self-organized criticality: an explanatio n of the 1/f noise, Phys. Rev. Lett. 59, 381–384.10.1103/PhysRevLett.59.381 10035754
Beckmann C. F. De Luca M. Devlin J. T. Smith S. N. (2005). Investigation into resting-state connectivity using independent component analysis. Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond., B, Biol. Sci. 360, 1001–1013.10.1098/rstb.2005.1634 16087444
Beggs J. M. Plenz D. (2003). Neuronal avalanches in neocortical circuits. J. Neurosci. 23, 11167–11177.14657176
Bianco S. Geneston E. Grigolini P. Ignaccolo M. (2008). Renewal aging as emerging property of phase synchronization. Physica A 387, 1387.10.1016/j.physa.2007.10.045
Brodsky B. E. Darkhovsky B. S. Kaplan A. Y. Shishkin S. L. (1999). A nonparametric method for the segmentation of the EEG. Comput. Methods Programs Biomed. 60, 93–106.10.1016/S0169-2607(98)00079-0 10505965
Buiatti M. Papo D. Baudonnière P.-M. van Vreeswijk C. (2007). Feedback modulates the temporal scale-free dynamics of brain electrical activity in a hypothesis testing task. Neuroscience 146, 1400–1412.10.1016/j.neuroscience.2007.02.048 17418496
Chialvo D. R. (2008). Emergent complexity: what uphill analysis or downhill invention cannot do. New Ideas Psychol. 26, 158–173.10.1016/j.newideapsych.2007.07.013
Chialvo D. R. Bak P. (1999). Learning from mistakes. Neuroscience 90, 1137–1148.10.1016/S0306-4522(98)00472-2 10338284
Contoyiannis Y. F. Diakonos F. K. (2000). Criticality and intermittency in the order parameter space, Phys. Lett. A 268, 286–292.10.1016/S0375-9601(00)00180-8
de Arcangelis L. Perrone-Capano C. Herrmann H. J. (2006). Self-organized criticality model for brain plasticity. Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 028107.10.1103/PhysRevLett.96.028107 16486652
Eguíluz V. M. Chialvo D. R. Cecchi G. A. Baliki M. Apkarian A. V. (2005). Scale-free brain functional networks. Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 018102.10.1103/PhysRevLett.94.018102 15698136
Fingelkurts A. A. Fingelkurts A. A. Kaplan A. Y. (2003a). The regularities of the discrete nature of multi-variability of EEG spectral patterns. Int. J. Psychophysiol. 47, 23–41.10.1016/S0167-8760(02)00089-2
Fingelkurts A. A. Fingelkurts A. A. Krause C. M. Mottonen R. Sams M. (2003b). Cortical operational syncrony during audio-visual speech integration. Brain Lang. 85, 297–312.10.1016/S0093-934X(03)00059-2
Fingelkurts A. A. Fingelkurts A. A. Kivisaari R. Pekkonen E. Ilmoniemi R. J. Kahkonen S. (2004). Enhancement of GABA-related signalling is associated with increase of functional connectivity in human cortex. Hum. Brain Mapp. 22, 27–39.10.1002/hbm.20014 15083524
Fraiman D. Balenzuela P. Foss J. Chialvo D. R. (2009). Ising-like dynamics in large-scale functional brain networks. Phys. Rev. E Stat. Nonlin. Soft Matter Phys. 79, 061922.10.1103/PhysRevE.79.061922 19658539
Gaspard P. Wang X.-J. (1988). Sporadicity: between periodic and chaotic dynamical behaviors. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 85, 4591–4595.10.1073/pnas.85.13.4591 16593949
Grigolini P. Palatella L. Raffaelli G. (2001). Asymmetric anomalous diffusion: an efficient way to detect memory in time series. Fractals 9, 439–449.10.1142/S0218348X01000865
Huang N. E. Shen Z. Long S. R. Wu M. L. C. Shih H. H. Zheng Q. N. Yen N. C. Tung C. C. Liu H. H. (1998). The empirical mode decomposition and the Hilbert spectrum for nonlinear and non-stationary time series analysis. Proc. R. Soc. Lond., B, Biol. Sci. 454, 903–995.
James C. J. Gibson O. J. (2003). Temporally constrained ICA: an application to artifac t rejection in electromagnetic brain signal analysis. IEEE Trans. Biomed. Eng. 50, 1108–1116.10.1109/TBME.2003.816076 12943278
Kaplan A. Y. Fingelkurts A. A. Fingelkurts A. A. Borisov B. S. Darkhovsky B. S. (2005). Nonstationary nature of the brain activity as revealed by EEG/MEG: methodological, practical and conceptual challenges. Signal Process. 85, 2190–2212.10.1016/j.sigpro.2005.07.010
Kitzbichler M. G. Smith M. L. Christensen S. R. Bullmore E. (2009). Broadband criticality of human brain network synchronization. PLoS Comput. Biol. 5, e1000314.10.1371/journal.pcbi.1000314 19300473
Linkenkaer-Hansen K. Nikouline V. V. Palva J. M. Ilmoniemi R. J. (2001). Long-range temporal correlations and scaling behavior in human brain oscillations. J. Neurosci. 21, 1370–1377.11160408
Mansouri F. A. Tanaka K. Buckley M. J. (2009). Conflict-induced behavioural adjustment: a clue to the executive functions of the prefrontal cortex. Nat. Rev. Neurosci. 10, 141–152.10.1038/nrn2538 19153577
Martin M. (2008). Brain quakes. Scientist 22, 23–29.
Medina J. M. (2009). 1/fα noise in reaction times: a proposed model based on Piéron's law and information processing. Phys. Rev. E Stat. Nonlin. Soft Matter Phys. 79, 011902.10.1103/PhysRevE.79.011902 19257064
Mega S. M. Allegrini P. Grigolini P. Latora V. Palatella L. Rapisarda A. Vinciguerra S. (2003). Power-law time distribution of large earthquakes. Phys. Rev. Lett. 90, 188501.10.1103/PhysRevLett.90.188501 12786049
Novikov E. Novikov A. Shannahoff-Khalsa D. Schwartz B. Wright J. (1997). Scale-similar activity in the brain. Phys. Rev. E Stat. Phys. Plasmas Fluids Relat. Interdiscip. Topics 56, R2387–R2389.10.1103/PhysRevE.56.R2387
Pellegrini G. L. de Arcangelis L. Herrmann H. J. Perrone-Capano C. (2007). Activity-dependent neural network model on scale-free networks. Phys. Rev. E Stat. Nonlin. Soft Matter Phys. 76, 016107.10.1103/PhysRevE.76.016107 17677533
Plenz D. Thiagarjan T. C. (2007). The organizing principles of neuronal avalanches: cell assemblies in the cortex? Trends Neurosci. 30, 101–110.10.1016/j.tins.2007.01.005 17275102
Raichle M. E. Mac Leod A. M. Snyder A. Z. Powers W. J. Gusnard D. A. Shulman G. L. (2001). A default mode of brain function. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 98, 676–682.10.1073/pnas.98.2.676 11209064
Silvestri L. Fronzoni L. Grigolini P. Allegrini P. (2009). Event-driven power-law relaxation in weak turbulence Phys. Rev. Lett., 102, 014502.10.1103/PhysRevLett.102.014502
Sokolov I. M. Klafter J. (2007). Continuous-time random walks in an oscillating field: field-induced dispersion and the death of linear response. Chaos Solitons Fractals 34, 81–86.10.1016/j.chaos.2007.01.051
Stanley H. E. (1971). Introduction to Phase Transitions and Critical Phenomena. London: Oxford University Press.
Tononi G. (2004). An information integration theory of consciousness. BMC Neurosci. 5, 42.10.1186/1471-2202-5-42 15522121
Tr evis F. Hahaga D. A. F. Hagelin J. Tanner M. Arenander A. Nidick S. Gaylord-King C. Grosswald S. Rainforth M. Schneider R. H. (2010). A self-referential default brain state: patterns of coherence, power, and eLoreta sources during eyes-closed rest and transcendental meditation practice. Cogn. Process. 11, 21–30.10.1007/s10339-009-0343-2 19862565
Turalska M. Lukovic M. West B. J. Grigolini P. (2009). Complexity and synchronization. Phys. Rev. E Stat. Nonlin. Soft Matter Phys. 80, 02110.10.1103/PhysRevE.80.021110
Turing A. M. (1957). Computing machines and intelligence. Mind 59, 236–241.
Werner G. (2009). Viewing brain processes as critical state transitions across levels of organization: neural events in cognition and consciousness, and general principles. Biosystems 96, 114–119.10.1016/j.biosystems.2008.11.011 19124060
West B. J. Geneston E. L. Grigolini P. (2008). Maximizing information exchange between complex networks. Phys. Rep. 468, 1–99.10.1016/j.physrep.2008.06.003
Zapperi S. Baekgaard L. K. Stanley H. E. (1995). Self-organized branching processes: mean-field theory for avalanches. Phys. Rev. Lett. 75, 4071–4074.10.1103/PhysRevLett.75.4071 10059807
Alkire M. T.Hudetz A. G.Tononi G. (2008). Consciousness and anesthesia. Science 322, 876–880 10.1126/science.1149213 18988836
Allegrini P.Balocchi R.Chillemi S.Grigolini P.Hamilton P.Maestri R.Palatella L.Raffaelli G. (2003a). Long- and short-term analysis of heartbeat sequences: correlation with mortality risk in congestive heart failure patients. Phys. Rev. E Stat. Nonlin. Soft Matter Phys. 67, 062901 10.1103/PhysRevE.67.062901 16241281
Allegrini P.Benci V.Grigolini P.Hamilton P.Ignaccolo M.Menconi G.Palatella L.Raffaelli G.Scafetta N.Virgilio M.Yang J. (2003b). Compression and diffusion: a joint approach to detect complexity. Chaos Solitons Fractals 15, 517–535 10.1016/S0960-0779(02)00136-4
Allegrini P.Bologna M.Fronzoni L.Grigolini P.Silvestri L. (2009a). Experimental quenching of harmonic stimuli: universality of linear response theory. Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 030602 10.1103/PhysRevLe tt.103.030602 19659260
Allegrini P.Menicucci D.Bedini R.Fronzoni L.Gemignani A.Grigolini P.West B. J.Paradisi P. (2009b). Spontaneous brain activity as a source of ideal 1/f noise. Phys. Rev. E Stat. Nonlin. Soft Matter Phys. 80, 061914 10.1103/PhysRevE.80.061914 20365197
Allegrini P.Bologna M.Grigolini P.West B. J. (2007). Fluctuation-dissipation theorem for event-dominated processes. Phys. Rev. Lett. 99, 010603 10.1103/PhysRevLett.99.010603 17678145
Allegrini P.Grigolini P.Palatella L. (2004). Intermittency and scale-free networks: a dynamical model for human language complexity. Chaos Solitons Fractals 20, 95–105 10.1016/S0960-0779(03)00432-6
Bak P.Tang C.Wiesenfeld K. (1987). Self-organized criticality: an explanation of the 1/f noise, Phys. Rev. Lett. 59, 381–384 10.1103/PhysRevLett.59.381 10035754
Beckmann C. F.De Luca M.Devlin J. T.Smith S. N. (2005). Investigation into resting-state connectivity using independent component analysis. Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond., B, Biol. Sci. 360, 1001–1013 10.1098/rstb.2005.1634 16087444
Beggs J. M.Plenz D. (2003). Neuronal avalanches in neocortical circuits. J. Neurosci. 23, 11167–11177 14657176
Bianco S.Geneston E.Grigolini P.Ignaccolo M. (2008). Renewal aging as emerging property of phase synchronization. Physica A 387, 1387 10.1016/j.physa.2007.10.045
Brodsky B. E.Darkhovsky B. S.Kaplan A. Y.Shishkin S. L. (1999). A nonparametric method for the segmentation of the EEG. Comput. Methods Programs Biomed. 60, 93–106 10.1016/S0169-2607(98)00079-0 10505965
Bu iatti M.Papo D.Baudonnière P.-M.van Vreeswijk C. (2007). Feedback modulates the temporal scale-free dynamics of brain electrical activity in a hypothesis testing task. Neuroscience 146, 1400–1412 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2007.02.048 17418496
Chialvo D. R. (2008). Emergent complexity: what uphill analysis or downhill invention cannot do. New Ideas Psychol. 26, 158–173 10.1016/j.newideapsych.2007.07.013
Chialvo D. R.Bak P. (1999). Learning from mistakes. Neuroscience 90, 1137–1148 10.1016/S0306-4522(98)00472-2 10338284
Contoyiannis Y. F.Diakonos F. K. (2000). Criticality and intermittency in the order parameter space, Phys. Lett. A 268, 286–292 10.1016/S0375-9601(00)00180-8
de Arcangelis L.Perrone-Capano C.Herrmann H. J. (2006). Self-organized criticality model for brain plasticity. Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 028107 10.1103/PhysRevLett.96.028107 16486652
Eguíluz V. M.Chialvo D. R.Cecchi G. A.Baliki M.Apkarian A. V. (2005). Scale-free brain functional networks. Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 018102 10.1103/PhysRevLett.94.018102 15698136
Fingelkurts A. A.Fingelkurts A. A.Kaplan A. Y. (2003a). The regularities of the discrete nature of multi-variability of EEG spectral patterns. Int. J. Psychophysiol. 47, 23–41 10.1016/S0167-8760(02)00089-2 12543444
Fingelkurts A. A.Fingelkurts A. A.Krause C. M.Mottonen R.Sams M. (2003b). Cortical operational syncrony during audio-visual speech integration. Brain Lang. 85, 297–312 10.1016/S0093-934X(03)00059-2 12735946
Fingelkurts A. A.Fingelkurts A. A.Kivisaari R.Pekkonen E.Ilmoniemi R. J.Kahkonen S. (2004). Enhancement of GABA-related signalling is associated with increase of functional connectivity in human cortex. Hum. Brain Mapp. 22, 27–39 10.1002/hbm.20014 15083524
Fraiman D.Balenzuela P.Foss J.Chialvo D. R. (2009). Ising-like dynamics in large-scale functional brain networks. Phys. Rev. E Stat. Nonlin. Soft Matter Phys. 79, 061922 10.1103/PhysRevE.79.061922 19658539
Gaspard P.Wang X.-J. (1988). Sporadicity: between periodic and chaotic dynamical behaviors. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 85, 4591–4595 10.1073/pnas.85.13.4591 16593949
Grigolini P.Palatella L.Raffaelli G. (2001). Asymmetric anomalous diffusion: an efficient way to detect memory in time ser ies. Fractals 9, 439–449 10.1142/S0218348X01000865
Huang N. E.Shen Z.Long S. R.Wu M. L. C.Shih H. H.Zheng Q. N.Yen N. C.Tung C. C.Liu H. H. (1998). The empirical mode decomposition and the Hilbert spectrum for nonlinear and non-stationary time series analysis. Proc. R. Soc. Lond., B, Biol. Sci. 454, 903–995
James C. J.Gibson O. J. (2003). Temporally constrained ICA: an application to artifact rejection in electromagnetic brain signal analysis. IEEE Trans. Biomed. Eng. 50, 1108–1116 10.1109/TBME.2003.816076 12943278
Kaplan A. Y.Fingelkurts A. A.Fingelkurts A. A.Borisov B. S.Darkhovsky B. S. (2005). Nonstationary nature of the brain activity as revealed by EEG/MEG: methodological, practical and conceptual challenges. Signal Process. 85, 2190–2212 10.1016/j.sigpro.2005.07.010
Kitzbichler M. G.Smith M. L.Christensen S. R.Bullmore E. (2009). Broadband criticality of human brain network synchronization. PLoS Comput. Biol. 5, e1000314 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1000314 19300473
Linkenkaer-Hansen K.Nikouline V. V.Palva J. M.Ilmoniemi R. J. (2001). Long-range temporal correlations and scaling behavior in human brain oscillations. J. Neurosci. 21, 1370–1377 11160408
Mansouri F. A.Tanaka K.Buckley M. J. (2009). Conflict-induced behavioural adjustment: a clue to the executive functions of the prefrontal cortex. Nat. Rev. Neurosci. 10, 141–152 10.1038/nrn2538 19153577
Martin M. (2008). Brain quakes. Scientist 22, 23–29
Medina J. M. (2009). 1/fα noise in reaction times: a proposed model based on Piéron's law and information processing. Phys. Rev. E Stat. Nonlin. Soft Matter Phys. 79, 011902 10.1103/PhysRevE.79.011902 19257064
Mega S. M.Allegrini P.Grigolini P.Latora V.Palatella L.Rapisarda A.Vinciguerra S. (2003). Power-law time distribution of large earthquakes. Phys. Rev. Lett. 90, 188501 10.1103/PhysRevLett.90.188501 12786049
Novikov E.Novikov A.Shannahoff-Khalsa D.Schwartz B.Wright J. (1997). Scale-similar activity in the brain. Phys. Rev. E Stat. Phys. Plasmas Fluids Relat. Interdiscip. Topics 56, R2387–R2389 10.1103/PhysRevE.56.R2387
Pellegrini G. L.de Arcangelis L.Herrmann H. J.Perrone-Capano C. (2007). Activity-dependent neural network model on scale-free networks. Phys. Rev. E Stat. Nonlin. Soft Matter Phys. 76, 016107 10.1103/PhysRevE.76.016107 17677533
Plenz D.Thiagarjan T. C. (2007). The organizing principles of neuronal avalanches: cell assemblies in the cortex? Trends Neurosci. 30, 101–110 10.1016/j.tins.2007.01.005 17275102
Raichle M. E.Mac Leod A. M.Snyder A. Z.Powers W. J.Gusnard D. A.Shulman G. L. (2001). A default mode of brain function. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 98, 676–682 10.1073/pnas.98.2.676 11209064
Silvestri L.Fronzoni L.Grigolini P.Allegrini P. (2009). Event-driven power-law relaxation in weak turbulence Phys. Rev. Lett., 102, 014502 10.1103/PhysRevLett.102.014502
Sokolov I. M.Klafter J. (2007). Continuous-time random walks in an oscillating field: field-induced dispersion and the death of linear response. Chaos Solitons Fractals 34, 81–86 10.1016/j.chaos.2007.01.051
Stanley H. E. (1971). Introduction to Phase Transitions and Critical Phenomena. London: Oxford University Press
Tononi G. (2004). An information integration theory of consciousness. BMC Neurosci. 5, 42 10.1186/1471-2202-5-42 15522121
Trevis F.Hahaga D. A. F.Hagelin J.Tanner M.Arenander A.Nidick S.Gaylord-King C.Grosswald S.Rainforth M.Schneider R. H. (2010). A self-referential default brain state: patterns of coherence, power, and eLoreta sources during eyes-closed rest and transcendental meditation practice. Cogn. Process. 11, 21–30 10.1007/s10339-009-0343-2 19862565
Turalska M.Lukovic M.West B. J.Grigolini P. (2009). Complexity and synchronization. Phys. Rev. E Stat. Nonlin. Soft Matter Phys. 80, 02110 10.1103/PhysRevE.80.021110
Turing A. M. (1957). Computing machines and intelligence. Mind 59, 236–241
Werner G. (2009). Viewing brain processes as critical state transitions across levels of organization: neural events in cognition and consciousness, and general principles. Biosystems 96, 114–119 10.1016/j.biosystems.2008.11.011 19124060
West B. J.Geneston E. L.Grigolini P. (2008). Maximizing information exchange between complex networks. Phys. Rep. 468, 1–99 10.1016/j.physrep.2008.06.003
Zapperi S.Baekgaard L. K.Stanley H. E. (1995). Self-organized branching processes: mean-field theory for avalanches. Ph ys. Rev. Lett. 75, 4071–4074 10.1103/PhysRevLett.75.4071 10059807

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BibTeX entry
@article{oai:it.cnr:prodotti:68492,
	title = {Fractal complexity in spontaneous EEG metastable-state transitions: new vistas on integrated neural dynamics},
	author = {Allegrini P. and Paradisi P. and Menicucci D. and Gemignani A.},
	publisher = {Frontiers Research Foundation,, Lausanne , Svizzera},
	doi = {10.3389/fphys.2010.00128},
	journal = {Frontiers in physiology},
	volume = {1},
	pages = {128–129},
	year = {2010}
}