Why a Woman's Brain is Like an Avalanche, a Landslide, an Earthquake, or a Hurricane

Critical dynamics are recognized as typical of many different physical systems including piles of rice or sand, earthquakes and mountain avalanches. _PLOSCompBio

Anyone who observes a woman quite closely will see that she is never the same person twice. Women are intrinsically changeable, and the reason for that is that a woman's brain is exquisitely changeable. Have you ever wondered about the processes that lie behind a woman's changeable brain?

The answer resides in an obscure field of study known as "self organised criticality." Self-organised criticality deals with systems that are able to balance on the razor's edge between chaos and order. Such systems, like a woman's brain, can tip in either direction -- seemingly without warning.

Self-organized criticality is an intuitively attractive model for functionally relevant brain dynamics [4]–[7]. Many cognitive and behavioral states, including perception, memory and action, have been described as the emergent properties of coherent or phase-locked oscillation in transient neuronal ensembles [8]–[11]. Critical dynamics of such neurophysiological systems would be expected to optimize their capacity for information transfer and storage, and would be compatible with their rapid reconfiguration in response to changing environmental contingencies, conferring an adaptive ability to switch quickly between behavioral states [12]. _PLOSCompBio

No one is claiming that women in particular lack mental and behavioural self-control. A man's brain exhibits the same self-organised criticality as a woman's brain. In fact, in the PLOS study linked above, fMRI and MEG imaging demonstrated this very criticality without regard to gender.

But science has made it clear that the male brain and the female brain -- at the prototype level -- exhibit distinct differences in their unique "strange attractors" and preferences. Such differences are operative at all scales of neurological, cerebral, and mental / behavioural levels.

And so although a woman is indeed like an avalanche, a woman's brain is much more finely ordered and versatile. Not only can her brain flow like a torrent in any given direction, but it can also "reset" itself. Once reset, her brain can flow like a torrent in other directions, or run in a calmer, slower trickle. The brain, perched upon the edge of chaos, can flow in seemingly limitless directions. But although the brain can reset itself, it is never exactly the same from one moment to the next.

The human brain -- both male and female -- works very hard to maintain itself perched upon the cusp of criticality, between order and chaos. The brain uses 20% of the energy taken in by the body, although it constitutes only 2% of the body's weight. It is not easy, being so changeable. And yet it is necessary if the brain is to learn to survive and thrive in a changeable world.

What is the basic unit of brain criticality? A neuron? A cortical column? A lobe, a hemisphere, the entire cortex -- even the entire brain / body? It depends. The concept of criticality extends at least downward to the neuronal level, and upward at least to the hemispheric / holo-cortical levels. Different types of "brainquakes" require different quantities of brain substrate.

Think of a line of dominoes, stood on end in a long serpentine line. Tip the end dominoe into the line and the entire snake topples in sequence. The brain is like an immense array of dominoes that can fall in any of 3 dimensions. These 3-D dominoes can produce an amazing variety of shapes in their toppling, but seem to prefer particular shapes over others. And they can reset themselves!

Think of it as an active landscape that evolves certain preferences over time. If a particular landscape is instantiated repeatedly (a habit), the brain will more naturally fall into that landscape with just the gentlest nudge.

Yes, a woman's brain is like an avalanche, an earthquake, a hurricane. So be gentle and kind -- but be wary. Be ever so wary.