Abstract
The human brain exhibits a complex structure made of scale-free highly
connected modules loosely interconnected by weaker links to form a
small-world network. These features appear in healthy patients whereas
neurological diseases often modify this structure. An important open
question concerns the role of brain modularity in sustaining the
critical behaviour of spontaneous activity. Here we analyse the neuronal
activity of a model, successful in reproducing on non-modular networks
the scaling behaviour observed in experimental data, on a modular
network implementing the main statistical features measured in human
brain. We show that on a modular network, regardless the strength of the
synaptic connections or the modular size and number, activity is never
fully scale-free. Neuronal avalanches can invade different modules which
results in an activity depression, hindering further avalanche
propagation. Critical behaviour is solely recovered if inter-module
connections are added, modifying the modular into a more random
structure.
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