Abstract
This paper considers state-dependent dynamics that mediate perception in the brain. In particular, it considers the formal basis of self-organized instabilities that enable perceptual transitions during Bayes-optimal perception. The basic phenomena we consider are perceptual transitions that lead to conscious ignition (Dehaene and Changeux, 2011) and how they depend on dynamical instabilities that underlie chaotic itinerancy (Breakspear, 2001; Tsuda, 2001) and self-organized criticality (Beggs and Plenz, 2003; Plenz and Thiagarajan, 2007; Shew et al., 2011). Our approach is based on a dynamical formulation of perception as approximate Bayesian inference, in terms of variational free energy minimization. This formulation suggests that perception has an inherent tendency to induce dynamical instabilities (critical slowing) that enable the brain to respond sensitively to sensory perturbations. We briefly review the dynamics of perception, in terms of generalized Bayesian filtering and free energy minimization, present a formal conjecture about self-organized instability and then test this conjecture, using neuronal (numerical) simulations of perceptual categorization.
Highlights
Perceptual categorization speaks to two key dynamical phenomena: transitions from one perceptual state to another and the dynamical mechanisms that permit this transition
We have looked at self-organization in terms of the selective sampling of the environment to minimize surprise and maintain a homoeostasis in the sense of Ashby www.frontiersin.org
Because surprise is negative log evidence in statistics, free energy minimization can be understood as accumulating evidence for generative models of the world in a Bayes-optimal fashion
Summary
This paper considers state-dependent dynamics that mediate perception in the brain It considers the formal basis of self-organized instabilities that enable perceptual transitions during Bayes-optimal perception. Our approach is based on a dynamical formulation of perception as approximate Bayesian inference, in terms of variational free energy minimization. This formulation suggests that perception has an inherent tendency to induce dynamical instabilities (critical slowing) that enable the brain to respond sensitively to sensory perturbations. We briefly review the dynamics of perception, in terms of generalized Bayesian filtering and free energy minimization, present a formal conjecture about self-organized instability and test this conjecture, using neuronal (numerical) simulations of perceptual categorization
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