Related papers: A minimal model of cognition based on oscillatory …

Foundation models are transforming neuroscience but are often prohibitively large, data-hungry, and difficult to deploy. Here, we introduce BrainSymphony, a lightweight and parameter-efficient foundation model with plug-and-play integration…

We consider the problem of designing synthetic cells to achieve a complex goal (e.g., mimicking the immune system by seeking invaders) in a complex environment (e.g., the circulatory system), where they might have to change their control…

One of the defining features of living systems is their adaptability to changing environmental conditions. This requires organisms to extract temporal and spatial features of their environment, and use that information to compute the…

We consider a living organism as an observer of the evolution of its environment recording sensory information about the state space X of the environment in real time. Sensory information is sampled and then processed on two levels. On the…

Modelling noisy oscillations of active systems is one of the current challenges in physics and biology. Because the physical mechanisms of such processes are often difficult to identify, we propose a linear stochastic model driven by a…

The minimal requirements for life are autopoiesis and cognition. We propose autopoietic models with cognition and perform three classes of evolutionary simulation. In our models the plasticity of the metabolic cycle and the regulation…

We propose a new computational-level objective function for theoretical biology and theoretical neuroscience that combines: reinforcement learning, the study of learning with feedback via rewards; rate-distortion theory, a branch of…

Active systems across scales, ranging from molecular machines to human crowds, are usually modeled as assemblies of self-propelled particles driven by internally generated forces. However, these models often assume memoryless dynamics and…

First-principles-based modelings have been extremely successful in providing crucial insights and predictions for complex biological functions and phenomena. However, they can be hard to build and expensive to simulate for complex living…

The building of minimal self-reproducing systems with a physical embodiment (generically called protocells) is a great challenge, with implications for both theory and applied sciences. Although the classical view of a living protocell…

Biological systems are notoriously noisy. Noise, therefore, also plays an important role in many models of neural impulse generation. Noise is not only introduced for more realistic simulations but also to account for cooperative effects…

Hybrid oscillator architectures that combine feedback oscillators with self-sustained negative resistance oscillators have emerged as a promising platform for artificial neuron design. In this work, we introduce a modeling and analysis…

Living organisms survive and multiply even though they have uncertain and incomplete information about their environment and imperfect models to predict the consequences of their actions. Bayesian models have been proposed to face this…

Thanks to novel, powerful brain activity recording techniques, we can create data-driven models from thousands of recording channels and large portions of the cortex, which can improve our understanding of brain-states neuromodulation and…

Understanding the oscillating behaviors that govern organisms' internal biological processes requires interdisciplinary efforts combining both biological and computer experiments, as the latter can complement the former by simulating…

Modeling dynamical systems and unraveling their underlying causal relationships is central to many domains in the natural sciences. Various physical systems, such as those arising in cell biology, are inherently high-dimensional and…

Replication through cell division is one of the most fundamental processes of life and a major driver of dynamics in systems ranging from bacterial colonies to embryogenesis, tissues and tumors. While regulation often plays a role in…

Rhythm is a fundamental aspect of human behaviour, present from infancy and deeply embedded in cultural practices. Rhythm anticipation is a spontaneous cognitive process that typically occurs before the onset of actual beats. While most…

In the mammalian brain, newly acquired memories depend on the hippocampus for maintenance and recall, but over time the neocortex takes over these functions, rendering memories hippocampus-independent. The process responsible for this…

This paper presents EINCASM, a prototype system employing a novel framework for studying emergent intelligence in organisms resembling slime molds. EINCASM evolves neural cellular automata with NEAT to maximize cell growth constrained by…