Proposed Renormalization Group Analysis of Nonlinear Brain Dynamics at Criticality

Perception is characterized by the formation of spatiotemporal patterns of neural activity that embody mental categories of the material events provided by the senses. The patterns are constructed by modifications of the background activity, which is maintained and self-regulated at criticality, such that all frequencies and wavelengths coexist. in neural activity. Patterns form when a null spike in the Rayleigh noise, which is generated by mutual excitation coincides with the sensory-selected activity from a Hebbian nerve cell assembly from past learning that is mobilized by the limbic system. The neural mechanisms of the phase transition that mediates perception may be subject to analysis in terms of renormalization group theory by systematic segmentation of the temporal spectra of various measures of brain activity.