Gespeichert in:
Bibliographische Detailangaben
Hauptverfasser: Briguglio, John J., Lee, Jaesung, Lee, Albert K., Hakim, Vincent, Romani, Sandro
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2025
Schlagworte:
Online-Zugang:https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.23030
Tags: Tag hinzufügen
Keine Tags, Fügen Sie den ersten Tag hinzu!
_version_ 1866912511484231680
author Briguglio, John J.
Lee, Jaesung
Lee, Albert K.
Hakim, Vincent
Romani, Sandro
author_facet Briguglio, John J.
Lee, Jaesung
Lee, Albert K.
Hakim, Vincent
Romani, Sandro
contents Power-law scaling in coarse-grained data suggests critical dynamics, but the true source of this scaling often remains unclear. Here, we analyze neural activity recorded during spatial navigation, reproducing power-law scaling under a phenomenological renormalization group (PRG) procedure that clusters units by activity similarity. Such scaling was previously linked to criticality. Here, we show that the iterative nature of the procedure itself leads to the emergence of power laws when applied to heterogeneous, non-interacting units obeying spatially structured activity without requiring critical interactions. Furthermore, the scaling exponents produced by heteregeneous non-interacting units match the observed exponents in recorded neural data. A simplified version of the PRG further reveals how heterogeneity smooths transitions across scales, mimicking critical behavior. The resulting exponents depend systematically on system and population size, predictions confirmed by subsampling the data.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2507_23030
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Place-cell heterogeneity underlies power-laws in hippocampal activity
Briguglio, John J.
Lee, Jaesung
Lee, Albert K.
Hakim, Vincent
Romani, Sandro
Neurons and Cognition
Power-law scaling in coarse-grained data suggests critical dynamics, but the true source of this scaling often remains unclear. Here, we analyze neural activity recorded during spatial navigation, reproducing power-law scaling under a phenomenological renormalization group (PRG) procedure that clusters units by activity similarity. Such scaling was previously linked to criticality. Here, we show that the iterative nature of the procedure itself leads to the emergence of power laws when applied to heterogeneous, non-interacting units obeying spatially structured activity without requiring critical interactions. Furthermore, the scaling exponents produced by heteregeneous non-interacting units match the observed exponents in recorded neural data. A simplified version of the PRG further reveals how heterogeneity smooths transitions across scales, mimicking critical behavior. The resulting exponents depend systematically on system and population size, predictions confirmed by subsampling the data.
title Place-cell heterogeneity underlies power-laws in hippocampal activity
topic Neurons and Cognition
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.23030