Biography

Luc Berthouze trained in applied mathematics in the French Grandes Ecoles system and received his PhD from the University of Evry Val d’Essonne in 1996. He then joined the Electrotechnical Laboratory (ETL) in Japan, as a research scientist. In 2000, he became a senior research scientist with the Neuroscience Research Institute of AIST, Japan. After a sabbatical in the department of Physiology at University College London (UK) in 2006, he joined the faculty of the Department of Informatics of University of Sussex (UK), first as a Senior Lecturer then as a Reader. He holds an honorary appointment at the GOSH UCL Institute of Child Health, London. His work lies at the intersection of mathematics (dynamical systems, random processes, graph/network theory), engineering (control theory, signal processing, robotics) and neurophysiology (EEG, EMG, MEG, kinematics). Some of his most recent research focuses on analysing systems operating at/near a critical transition with application to neuroscience and epidemiology. He is funded by various bodies including the Leverhulme Trust, InnovateUK, and industrial partners.

Abstract

Criticality as a key ingredient for open-ended development?

Systems that operate near/at a transition between ordered and disordered phases are thought to exhibit a number of useful properties including susceptibility to perturbations, maximal dynamic range of information processing and communication, optimal information storage and computing power. Unsurprisingly, there has been much work seeking to establish the extent to which the brain is critical. In this talk, I will review some of the evidence. Focusing on phase synchronisation and its role in cortico-cortical and cortico-spinal communication, in health and in disease, I will speculate as to how tuning developmental systems to criticality may help meet some of the challenges of open-ended learning and how this might be done in an intrinsically-motivated manner.