Entropy-Complexity Characterization of Brain Development in Chickens

Abstract

Electroencephalography (EEG) reflects the electrical activity of the brain, whichcan be considered chaotic and ruled by a nonlinear dynamics. Chickens exhibit a protractedperiod of maturation, and this temporal separation of the synapse formation and maturationphases is analogous to human neural development, though the changes in chickens occur inweeks compared to years in humans. The development of synaptic networks in the chickenbrain can be regarded as occurring in two broadly defined phases. We specifically describethe chicken brain development phases in the causality entropy-complexity planeH C,showing that the complexity of the electrical activity can be characterized by estimating theintrinsic correlational structure of the EEG signal. This allows us to identify the dynamicsof the developing chicken brain within the zone of a chaotic dissipative behavior in the planeH C