by Prof. Lucilla de Arcangelis, University of Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli”
When: June 12, 2025, at 3:30 pm
Where: Sala Seminari VIMM (Fondazione per la Ricerca Biomedica Avanzata Onlus, Via Orus 2, Padova)
Abstract: The fundamental open question of the relation between spontaneous and evoked activity is a longstanding question in neuroscience. Here we formalize it by means of the stochastic Wilson Cowan model.
An approach inspired in non-equilibrium statistical physics allows to calculate fluctuation-dissipation relations, suggesting that measurements of the spontaneous fluctuations in the global brain activity could provide a prediction for the system response to a stimulus. Theoretical predictions are in good agreement with MEG data for healthy patients performing visual tasks. In pathological conditions the relations still hold and evidence a complex oscillatory behavior in the temporal correlations. The analysis of the entropy production in a range of parameters near the critical point suggests that the system is always out of equilibrium and that the entropy production is minimized if the balance of excitation and inhibition is realized.