Figure 7

Changes in the exponent B can drastically affect the distribution of significant avalanches. A, Probability of observing a group of statistically significant avalanches of length L, plotted against L. Plot shows data produced by acute slices (n = 7) and organotypic cultures (n = 7; data reproduced from figure 10 of [17]). Note decline in probability of observing a group of significant avalanches with increasing L. Sum of squares difference between these two data distributions was 0.016, and is taken as an estimate of the intrinsic error of the data itself. B, Distribution of groups of significant avalanches produced by model with weighting function having exponent B = 0.4, plotted on top of average distribution from slice and culture data. Sum of squares error between data and model was 0.005. C, Same as in B, but here model weighting function had an exponent of B = 3.6. Sum of squares error was 0.075. Note that changes in the exponent B can produce large changes in the distribution of groups of significant avalanches.