It has recently been reported that statistical signatures of brain criticality, obtained from distributions of neuronal avalanches, can depend on the cortical state. We revisit these claims with a completely different and independent approach, employing a maximum entropy model to test whether signatures of criticality appear in urethane-anesthetized rats. To account for the spontaneous variation of cortical states, we parse the time series and perform the maximum entropy analysis as a function of the variability of the population spiking activity. To compare data sets with different numbers of neurons, we define a normalized distance to criticality that takes into account the peak and width of the specific heat curve. We found a universal collapse of the normalized distance to criticality dependence on the cortical state, on an animal by animal basis. This indicates a universal dynamics and a critical point at an intermediate value of spiking variability.

• Received 29 January 2020
• Accepted 1 July 2020

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.102.012408