Table 1. Here we list the main ingredients of the model with relevant notations and equations that introduce them.

Equations and references	Ingredients of the model
i = 1, …, N	N agents modeled as neurons in discrete time t = 1, 2, ….
Eqs (1) and (2). Refs. [65–67].	Firing rule for activity mi(t) of discrete agents-neurons.
Eqs (4) and (5). Ref. [71].	Constrained network weights τij model attention limitation.
Eq (6).	Adaptation of weights: an active agent gets more attention from others. Parameter α accounts for inertia.
Eqs (7) and (9).	An agent which gets more attention obtains larger score σi. The score-weight interaction is controlled by parameter β.
Eqs (18) and (19). Refs. [65–67].	Behavioral noise ϕi(t) with magnitude η.