Self-organized criticality in a cellular automaton model of pulse-coupled integrate-and-fire neurons

Abstract

We have introduced a cellular automaton to investigate self-organized criticality in the activity of neural populations. The model is composed of pulse-coupled integrate-and-fire neurons and stimulated by continuous driving. Under an appropriate condition, the system is found to exhibit a robust self-organized critical behaviour accompanied with the large-scale synchronized activities among the units. It indicates the close relationship between self-organized criticality and synchronization.