Psychophysical identity and free energy
Neurons and Cognition
2020-08-07 v2
Abstract
An approach to implementing variational Bayesian inference in biological systems is considered, under which the thermodynamic free energy of a system directly encodes its variational free energy. In the case of the brain, this assumption places constraints on the neuronal encoding of generative and recognition densities, in particular requiring a stochastic population code. The resulting relationship between thermodynamic and variational free energies is prefigured in mind-brain identity theses in philosophy and in the Gestalt hypothesis of psychophysical isomorphism.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2005.08935,
title = {Psychophysical identity and free energy},
author = {Alex B. Kiefer},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2005.08935},
year = {2020}
}
Comments
22 pages; published as a research article on 8/5/2020 in Journal of the Royal Society Interface