Psychosis doesn't break the brain's scaling—it just shifts it

Brain activity in healthy people follows scale-invariant patterns—think of fractals repeating at different magnifications—that support efficient communication. Using three complementary analysis methods on resting-state fMRI, the team found early psychosis patients maintain this scale-invariant organization but with shifted parameters across multiple measures. This suggests psychosis involves a recalibration of collective brain dynamics rather than a loss of critical-like behavior.