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Embracing sensorimotor history: Time-synchronous and time-unrolled Markov blankets in the free-energy principle

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 September 2022

Nathaniel Virgo
Affiliation:
Earth-Life Science Institute (ELSI), Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo 152-8550, Japan nathanielvirgo@elsi.jp http://www.elsi.jp/en/members/researchers/nvirgo
Fernando E. Rosas
Affiliation:
Department of Brain Science, Centre for Psychedelic Research, Imperial College London, London W12 0NN, UK f.rosas@imperial.ac.uk https://www.imperial.ac.uk/people/f.rosas Data Science Institute, Imperial College London, London W7 2AZ, UK Centre for Complexity Science, Imperial College London, London W7 2AZ, UK Department of Informatics, University of Sussex, Brighton BN1 9QJ, UK
Martin Biehl
Affiliation:
Cross Labs, Cross Compass, Tokyo 104-0045, Japan martin.biehl@cross-compass.com https://twitter.com/36zimmer

Abstract

The free-energy principle (FEP) builds on an assumption that sensor–motor loops exhibit Markov blankets in stationary state. We argue that there is rarely reason to assume a system's internal and external states are conditionally independent given the sensorimotor states, and often reason to assume otherwise. However, under mild assumptions internal and external states are conditionally independent given the sensorimotor history.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press

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