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Murphy E, Holmes E, Friston K. Natural language syntax complies with the free-energy principle. SYNTHESE 2024; 203:154. [PMID: 38706520 PMCID: PMC11068586 DOI: 10.1007/s11229-024-04566-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/09/2023] [Accepted: 03/15/2024] [Indexed: 05/07/2024]
Abstract
Natural language syntax yields an unbounded array of hierarchically structured expressions. We claim that these are used in the service of active inference in accord with the free-energy principle (FEP). While conceptual advances alongside modelling and simulation work have attempted to connect speech segmentation and linguistic communication with the FEP, we extend this program to the underlying computations responsible for generating syntactic objects. We argue that recently proposed principles of economy in language design-such as "minimal search" criteria from theoretical syntax-adhere to the FEP. This affords a greater degree of explanatory power to the FEP-with respect to higher language functions-and offers linguistics a grounding in first principles with respect to computability. While we mostly focus on building new principled conceptual relations between syntax and the FEP, we also show through a sample of preliminary examples how both tree-geometric depth and a Kolmogorov complexity estimate (recruiting a Lempel-Ziv compression algorithm) can be used to accurately predict legal operations on syntactic workspaces, directly in line with formulations of variational free energy minimization. This is used to motivate a general principle of language design that we term Turing-Chomsky Compression (TCC). We use TCC to align concerns of linguists with the normative account of self-organization furnished by the FEP, by marshalling evidence from theoretical linguistics and psycholinguistics to ground core principles of efficient syntactic computation within active inference.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elliot Murphy
- Vivian L. Smith Department of Neurosurgery, McGovern Medical School, University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston, TX 77030 USA
- Texas Institute for Restorative Neurotechnologies, University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston, TX 77030 USA
| | - Emma Holmes
- Department of Speech Hearing and Phonetic Sciences, University College London, London, WC1N 1PF UK
- The Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, London, WC1N 3AR UK
| | - Karl Friston
- The Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, London, WC1N 3AR UK
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The seductive allure of cargo cult computationalism. Behav Brain Sci 2022; 45:e185. [PMID: 36172778 DOI: 10.1017/s0140525x22000279] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
Abstract
Bruineberg and colleagues report a striking confusion, in which the formal Bayesian notion of a "Markov blanket" has been frequently misunderstood and misapplied to phenomena of mind and life. I argue that misappropriation of formal concepts is pervasive in the "predictive processing" literature, and echo Richard Feynman in suggesting how we might resist the allure of cargo cult computationalism.
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Colditz IG. Adrenergic Tone as an Intermediary in the Temperament Syndrome Associated With Flight Speed in Beef Cattle. FRONTIERS IN ANIMAL SCIENCE 2021. [DOI: 10.3389/fanim.2021.652306] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/04/2023] Open
Abstract
The temperament of farm animals can influence their resilience to everyday variations within the managed production environment and has been under strong direct and indirect selection during the course of domestication. A prominent objective measure used for assessing temperament in beef cattle is the behavioral flight response to release from confinement in a crush or chute. This behavioral measure, termed flight speed (also known as escape velocity) is associated with physiological processes including body temperature, feeding behavior, growth rate, carcass composition, immune function, and health outcomes. This review examines the functional links between this suite of traits and adrenergic activity of the sympathetic nervous system and the adrenomedullary hormonal system. It is suggested that flight speed is the behavioral aspect of an underlying “flightiness” temperament syndrome, and that elevated adrenergic tone in animals with a high level of flightiness (i.e., flighty animals) tunes physiological activities toward a sustained “fight or flight” defense profile that reduces productivity and the capacity to flourish within the production environment. Nonetheless, despite a common influence of adrenergic tone on this suite of traits, variation in each trait is also influenced by other regulatory pathways and by the capacity of tissues to respond to a range of modulators in addition to adrenergic stimuli. It is suggested that tuning by adrenergic tone is an example of homeorhetic regulation that can help account for the persistent expression of behavioral and somatic traits associated with the flight speed temperament syndrome across the life of the animal. At a population level, temperament may modulate ecological fit within and across generations in the face of environmental variability and change. Associations of flight speed with the psychological affective state of the animal, and implications for welfare are also considered. The review will help advance understanding of the developmental biology and physiological regulation of temperament syndromes.
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A consideration of physiological regulation from the perspective of Bayesian enactivism. Physiol Behav 2020; 214:112758. [PMID: 31785272 DOI: 10.1016/j.physbeh.2019.112758] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/29/2019] [Revised: 11/11/2019] [Accepted: 11/25/2019] [Indexed: 12/17/2022]
Abstract
How the animal regulates its internal environment is a central question in physiology. In recent years, the account of biological functions known as Bayesian enactivism has been extended from neuroscience to address processes of physiological regulation. Enactivism understands sensory action cycles of perception and behaviour to entail expectations of the causes of sensations received from the environment. Enactivism is Bayesian in that the organism strives to update expectations to better match the sensations it experiences through actions. The review starts with a brief examination of the historical development of the concepts of homeostasis, homeorhesis and allostasis. To better align the historical concepts of physiological regulation with Bayesian enactivism it is suggested that homeorhesis and allostasis function as opposing effectors modulating, respectively, robustness and plasticity of phenotype to render homeostatic balance of the animal with its changing environment. In this formulation, the expectations of the environment embedded within the form and functions of the animal that develop under homeorhetic control during morphogenesis and morphostasis are updated by allostasis to better match the animal's phenotype with its contemporary environment. Just as morphogens shape development and persistence of anatomical form during morphogenesis and morphostasis, anticipatory behaviours can be understood to structure the animal's pattern of environmental engagement in a manner that shapes the development and persistence of homeostasis. Further empirical and theoretical analyses should help clarify whether homeorhesis and allostasis are aspects of a common underlying process or are opposing effectors mediating a Bayesian dialogue between expectation and experience.
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Badcock PB, Friston KJ, Ramstead MJD, Ploeger A, Hohwy J. The hierarchically mechanistic mind: an evolutionary systems theory of the human brain, cognition, and behavior. COGNITIVE, AFFECTIVE & BEHAVIORAL NEUROSCIENCE 2019; 19:1319-1351. [PMID: 31115833 PMCID: PMC6861365 DOI: 10.3758/s13415-019-00721-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 55] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/18/2022]
Abstract
The purpose of this review was to integrate leading paradigms in psychology and neuroscience with a theory of the embodied, situated human brain, called the Hierarchically Mechanistic Mind (HMM). The HMM describes the brain as a complex adaptive system that functions to minimize the entropy of our sensory and physical states via action-perception cycles generated by hierarchical neural dynamics. First, we review the extant literature on the hierarchical structure of the brain. Next, we derive the HMM from a broader evolutionary systems theory that explains neural structure and function in terms of dynamic interactions across four nested levels of biological causation (i.e., adaptation, phylogeny, ontogeny, and mechanism). We then describe how the HMM aligns with a global brain theory in neuroscience called the free-energy principle, leveraging this theory to mathematically formulate neural dynamics across hierarchical spatiotemporal scales. We conclude by exploring the implications of the HMM for psychological inquiry.
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Affiliation(s)
- Paul B Badcock
- Centre for Youth Mental Health, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia.
- Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia.
- Orygen, The National Centre of Excellence in Youth Mental Health, Melbourne, Australia.
| | - Karl J Friston
- Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, University College London, London, UK
| | - Maxwell J D Ramstead
- Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, University College London, London, UK
- Department of Philosophy, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada
- Division of Social and Transcultural Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada
| | - Annemie Ploeger
- Department of Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Jakob Hohwy
- Cognition & Philosophy Lab, Monash University, Clayton, VIC, Australia
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Palacios ER, Razi A, Parr T, Kirchhoff M, Friston K. On Markov blankets and hierarchical self-organisation. J Theor Biol 2019; 486:110089. [PMID: 31756340 PMCID: PMC7284313 DOI: 10.1016/j.jtbi.2019.110089] [Citation(s) in RCA: 33] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/14/2019] [Revised: 11/16/2019] [Accepted: 11/19/2019] [Indexed: 10/29/2022]
Abstract
Biological self-organisation can be regarded as a process of spontaneous pattern formation; namely, the emergence of structures that distinguish themselves from their environment. This process can occur at nested spatial scales: from the microscopic (e.g., the emergence of cells) to the macroscopic (e.g. the emergence of organisms). In this paper, we pursue the idea that Markov blankets - that separate the internal states of a structure from external states - can self-assemble at successively higher levels of organisation. Using simulations, based on the principle of variational free energy minimisation, we show that hierarchical self-organisation emerges when the microscopic elements of an ensemble have prior (e.g., genetic) beliefs that they participate in a macroscopic Markov blanket: i.e., they can only influence - or be influenced by - a subset of other elements. Furthermore, the emergent structures look very much like those found in nature (e.g., cells or organelles), when influences are mediated by short range signalling. These simulations are offered as a proof of concept that hierarchical self-organisation of Markov blankets (into Markov blankets) can explain the self-evidencing, autopoietic behaviour of biological systems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ensor Rafael Palacios
- The Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, University College London, Queen Square, London WC1N 3BG, UK.
| | - Adeel Razi
- The Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, University College London, Queen Square, London WC1N 3BG, UK; Monash Institute of Cognitive and Clinical Neurosciences and Monash Biomedical Imaging, Monash University, Clayton, Australia; Department of Electronic Engineering, NED University of Engineering and Technology, Karachi, Pakistan
| | - Thomas Parr
- The Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, University College London, Queen Square, London WC1N 3BG, UK
| | - Michael Kirchhoff
- Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts, University of Wollongong, Wollongong 2500, Australia
| | - Karl Friston
- The Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, University College London, Queen Square, London WC1N 3BG, UK
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Ramstead MJD, Kirchhoff MD, Constant A, Friston KJ. Multiscale integration: beyond internalism and externalism. SYNTHESE 2019; 198:41-70. [PMID: 33627890 PMCID: PMC7873008 DOI: 10.1007/s11229-019-02115-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/23/2018] [Accepted: 01/30/2019] [Indexed: 05/17/2023]
Abstract
We present a multiscale integrationist interpretation of the boundaries of cognitive systems, using the Markov blanket formalism of the variational free energy principle. This interpretation is intended as a corrective for the philosophical debate over internalist and externalist interpretations of cognitive boundaries; we stake out a compromise position. We first survey key principles of new radical (extended, enactive, embodied) views of cognition. We then describe an internalist interpretation premised on the Markov blanket formalism. Having reviewed these accounts, we develop our positive multiscale account. We argue that the statistical seclusion of internal from external states of the system-entailed by the existence of a Markov boundary-can coexist happily with the multiscale integration of the system through its dynamics. Our approach does not privilege any given boundary (whether it be that of the brain, body, or world), nor does it argue that all boundaries are equally prescient. We argue that the relevant boundaries of cognition depend on the level being characterised and the explanatory interests that guide investigation. We approach the issue of how and where to draw the boundaries of cognitive systems through a multiscale ontology of cognitive systems, which offers a multidisciplinary research heuristic for cognitive science.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maxwell J. D. Ramstead
- Department of Philosophy, McGill University, Montreal, QC Canada
- Division of Social and Transcultural Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, Montreal, QC Canada
- Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, University College London, London, WC1N3BG UK
| | - Michael D. Kirchhoff
- Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, Australia
| | - Axel Constant
- Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, University College London, London, WC1N3BG UK
- Amsterdam Brain and Cognition Centre, University of Amsterdam, Science Park 904, 1098 XH Amsterdam, Netherlands
| | - Karl J. Friston
- Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, University College London, London, WC1N3BG UK
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