The brain's famous critical state might just be a side effect of neurons interacting with limited biological resources like memory.
April 24, 2026
Original Paper
A Critical Assessment of the Brain Criticality Hypothesis
arXiv · 2604.21071
The Takeaway
Neuroscientists have long believed the brain optimizes its performance by existing on the knife edge of a phase transition. New modeling suggests this pattern is actually caused by the slow way neurons use up and replenish internal resources. This finding challenges the idea that the brain is naturally tuned to a state of maximum efficiency and information flow. The observed patterns may be a simple consequence of cellular mechanics rather than an evolved optimization strategy. This rethink forces researchers to look for the true drivers of neural processing beyond abstract mathematical ideals.
From the abstract
A major unresolved question in Neuroscience is: What is the origin of the observed scale-invariant correlations in neural activity? Many researchers support the ``criticality hypothesis,'' which proposes that the brain operates near a critical point, optimizing various information processing functions. We argue that such a critical point may not exist. Rather, the coupling between neurons and slowly varying resources (acting as ``memory''), may instead generate a robust phase of neural activity