Criticality in the Brain: Evidence and Implications for Neuromorphic Computing

We have discovered an unexpected correlation between the operational temperature of the brain and cognitive abilities across a wide variety of animal species. This correlation is extracted from available data in the literature of the temperature range ΔT at which an animal’s brain can operate and its encephalization quotient EQ, which can be used as a proxy for cognitive ability. In particular, we found a power-law dependence between ΔT and EQ. These data support the theory that the brain behaves as a critical system where temperature is one of the critical parameters, tuning the performance of the neural network