[Eeglablist] Invitation to collaborate on an open paper about EEG’s 1/f power distribution

[m za]

Dear Makoto and colleagues,

After reading the paper by Gao et al. (2017, NeuroImage) and reviewing
other related works, I found it interesting that their findings on the 1/f
slope in EEG seem related to concepts I had previously explored about
critical dynamics and Griffiths phases in brain networks.
In my view, one possible contributing factor to the emergence of the 1/f
pattern could be the balance between excitation (E) and inhibition (I) at
the neuronal level. This balance allows the network to avoid both complete
quiescence and runaway activity, maintaining a controlled critical regime
instead. Within such conditions, hierarchical and modular network
structures can give rise to rare regions that sustain long-lasting and
stable activity — a hallmark of the Griffiths phase — which may manifest as
the 1/f-like scaling in the EEG spectrum.
>From a time–frequency perspective, this is also intriguing: just as wavelet
analysis reflects a trade-off between temporal and spectral precision (as
in the uncertainty principle), one might consider a similar balance between
power and frequency in neural dynamics, reflecting how criticality
organizes activity over different temporal scales.
Of course, this is only one possible viewpoint, and other mechanisms such
as dendritic filtering (as described by cable theory) or variations in
network size across frequencies may also contribute. However, based on what
I have read so far, I believe examining the E/I balance and its link to
Griffiths-like dynamics might provide valuable insights into the
physiological origin of the 1/f phenomenon.
Best regards,
Marjan Zamani

On Fri, 7 Nov 2025, 01:35 m za, <ma.zamani.20 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Dear Makoto and colleagues, I would like to express my interest in
> participating in the collaborative project on the 1/f power distribution in
> EEG. My scientific background in this area is still limited, but I am eager
> to learn through study and participation. A personal guess that occurred to
> me is that the inverse relationship between power and frequency in EEG
> might be somewhat similar to the time–frequency trade-off in wavelet
> analysis. Just as wavelets achieve a scale-dependent compromise between
> time and frequency localization, perhaps here too, a similar balance
> between power and frequency could help us better understand the signal’s
> behavior. This idea seems consistent, at least conceptually, with the
> uncertainty principle. Of course, I am not certain that this idea is
> entirely correct, and it is possible I have overlooked something. Best
> regards,
>
> Marjan Zamani
>
> On Wed, Nov 5, 2025 at 5:14 AM Makoto Miyakoshi via eeglablist <
> eeglablist at sccn.ucsd.edu> wrote:
>
>> Hello EEGLAB mailing list,
>>
>> Some of you may recall the long, dense, and ever-continuing discussion we
>> witnessed this summer about EEG’s 1/f power distribution. I’m sure many of
>> you wondered, “Can they please stop quoting papers while speaking?” That
>> conversation seemed to have ended on the list. But it has continued
>> off-list! And now, it has led to the idea of writing a collaborative
>> paper.
>>
>> We’d like to invite anyone interested to join this open project. You don’t
>> need to be a specialist; genuine curiosity and a willingness to contribute
>> are what matter most.
>>
>> If you’d like to participate, please reply to this mailing list so that
>> everyone can stay in the loop.
>>
>> For those curious, I’ve also included below a brief history of EEGLAB
>> mailing list–initiated publications.
>>
>> Makoto
>>
>> %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
>> There have been several papers initiated through collaborations among the
>> EEGLAB mailing list community and myself. Perhaps the most memorable one
>> was the *ICA's bug *paper:
>>
>>
>> https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/signal-processing/articles/10.3389/frsip.2023.1064138/full__;!!Mih3wA!Cbh-YHezfgaqMmBE5W3ZEgrQrVWaUWYz-KTmrvjznnSBUe4gGGPHnTU4wiXAUjuTUdp3kJzk20zqxfyCe0Sn4D1t7BQ$
>>
>> We can find the origin of this project in the following post.
>>
>> *On Fri, May 7, 2021 at 2:25 PM Makoto Miyakoshi <mmiyakoshi at
>> ucsd.edu <https://sccn.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/eeglablist  >>
>> **Dear subscribers,
>> **Recently, there are multiple independent posts about the data rank
>> issue **with ICA. In response, I am thinking about running a
>> simulation **experiment **with a visiting scholar to SCCN as a small
>> project on this issue for **publication. I would appreciate it if you
>> can give me any of the **following **as an input.*
>>
>> I made it festive: I invited a high-school intern to join as a co-author
>> (his coding skill was GOOD); I also invited a person whose name had been
>> mysteriously engraved for over a decade in an annotation of EEGLAB’s code
>> in question; I cited four authorities via unfashionable “private
>> communication”; and yes, I gave the paper a catchy title that the first
>> author did not like… etc., etc.
>>
>> >* > On Fri, May 7, 2021 at 2:25 PM Makoto Miyakoshi <mmiyakoshi at
>> ucsd.edu <https://sccn.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/eeglablist  >>
>> *>* wrote:
>> *>* >
>> *>* >> Dear subscribers,
>> *>* >>
>> *>* >> Recently, there are multiple independent posts about the data rank
>> issue
>> *>* >> with ICA. In response, I am thinking about running a simulation
>> *>* experiment
>> *>* >> with a visiting scholar to SCCN as a small project on this issue
>> for
>> *>* >> publication. I would appreciate it if you can give me any of the
>> *>* following
>> *>* >> as an input.
>> *>* >>
>> *>* >>   - Questions (what is puzzling for you? No need to be shy for
>> asking
>> *>* >>   'dumb questions')
>> *>* >>   - Requests (if you want to know particularly X and/or Y on this
>> issue,
>> *>* >>   I may be able to give you the answer based on the simulation
>> test)
>> *>* >>   - Suggestions (about methods, data type, applications, etc)
>> *>* >>   - Reports (when ICA failed, what did you see?)
>> *>* >>
>> *>* >> If you are interested in working with me to make a contribution to
>> this
>> *>* >> small project, please reply or contact me mmiyakoshi at
>> ucsd.edu. <https://sccn.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/eeglablist  > If your
>> *>* >> contribution is substantial, I'll offer you to be a coauthor.
>> Probably
>> *>* we
>> *>* >> will need as many strange results as possible...?
>> *>* >>
>> *>* >> Probably this is the first attempt to run an open experiment on the
>> *>* EEGLAB
>> *>* >> mailing list--please join us and let's find out what happens!
>> *>* >>
>> *>* >> Makoto*
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>
>