Brain criticality shifts, not collapses, in early psychosis
Resting-state fMRI reveals systematic scaling deviations in early psychosis patients.
Deep Dive
Using resting-state fMRI data, researchers applied phenomenological renormalization group, power spectral density, and detrended fluctuation analysis. They found that early psychosis brains retain overall critical dynamics but show systematic shifts in scaling exponents across multiple observables—suggesting reorganization, not a simple loss of criticality.
Key Points
- Resting-state fMRI reveals scale-invariant brain dynamics in both healthy and early psychosis groups.
- Early psychosis shows systematic shifts in scaling exponents, not a loss of criticality.
- Combined PRG, PSD, and DFA methods provide a robust framework for psychiatric biomarker discovery.
Why It Matters
Shifts in brain scaling behavior could enable early, objective biomarkers for psychosis detection and treatment monitoring.