Average Is Optimal: An Inverted-U Relationship between Trial-to-Trial Brain Activity and Behavioral Performance. He, B., J. & Zempel, J., M. PLoS Computational Biology, 2013.
Average Is Optimal: An Inverted-U Relationship between Trial-to-Trial Brain Activity and Behavioral Performance [pdf]Paper  abstract   bibtex   
Author Summary The human brain is notoriously “noisy”. Even with identical physical sensory inputs and task demands, brain responses and behavioral output vary tremendously from trial to trial. Such brain and behavioral variability and the relationship between them have been the focus of intense neuroscience research for decades. Traditionally, it is thought that the relationship between trial-to-trial brain activity and behavioral performance is monotonic: the highest or lowest brain activity levels are associated with the best behavioral performance. Using invasive recordings in neurosurgical patients, we demonstrate an inverted-U relationship between brain and behavioral variability. Under such a relationship, moderate brain activity is associated with the best performance, while both very low and very high brain activity levels are predictive of compromised performance. These results have significant implications for our understanding of brain functioning. They further support recent theoretical frameworks that view the brain as an active nonlinear dynamical system instead of a passive signal-processing device.

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