Deviation from Criticality in Functional Biological Networks

Abstract

Abstract. Claims based on power laws that cognition occurs in a critical state often rely on the assumption that the network observables studied are observables of cognition, however this relationship to function is not clear. Our novel approach to investigate this problem is instead to consider functional output during (goal-directed) pre-copulatory courtship of Drosophila melanogaster, which we study as a complex network. This courtship body language, expressed through a symbolic dynamics, has previously been shown to be situation specific and grammatically complex; here, we show that the networks underlying it deviate from a scale-free structure when recursive grammars are included. This structural deviation is modelled by a simple network growth algorithm which adds internal edge saturation to the preferential attachment paradigm. From this, we suggest that a critical state may not be compatible with higher level cognition.