Is free-energy minimisation the mark of the cognitive?
Open accessAbstract
Abstract A mark of the cognitive should allow us to specify theoretical principles for demarcating cognitive from non-cognitive causes of behaviour in organisms. Specific criteria are required to settle the question of when in the evolution of life cognition first emerged. An answer to this question should however avoid two pitfalls. It should avoid overintellectualising the minds of other organisms, ascribing to them cognitive capacities for which they have no need given the lives they lead within the niches they inhabit. But equally it should do justice to the remarkable flexibility and adaptiveness that can be observed in the behaviour of microorganisms that do not have a nervous system. We should resist seeking non-cognitive explanations of behaviour simply because an organism fails to exhibit human-like feats of thinking, reasoning and problem-solving. We will show how Karl Friston’s Free-Energy Principle (FEP) can serve as the basis for a mark of the cognitive that avoids the twin pitfalls of overintellectualising or underestimating the cognitive achievements of evolutionarily primitive organisms. The FEP purports to describe principles of organisation that any organism must instantiate if it is to remain well-adapted to its environment. Living systems from plants and microorganisms all the way up to humans act in ways that tend in the long run to minimise free energy. If the FEP provides a mark of the cognitive, as we will argue it does, it mandates that cognition should indeed be ascribed to plants, microorganisms and other organisms that lack a nervous system.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
The process of selecting actions that minimize expected free energy (allostatic control) is not itself thought to underwrite phenomenal selfhood and experience.
“This process of selecting actions that minimize expected free energy, which has been dubbed ‘allostatic control’ (Kiverstein and Sims 2021), is not itself thought to underwrite phenomenal selfhood (and experience).”
From Consciousness in active inference: Deep self-models, other minds, and the challenge of psychedelic-induced ego-dissolution (2021) · cites this paper as Kiverstein and Sims 2021
Cites
The free-energy principle: a unified brain theory?
Friston, K. (2010) · Nature Reviews Neuroscience · doi:10.1038/nrn2787 · Cited by 8,120 · see citing works
The Embodied Mind: Cognitive Science and Human Experience
Varela, F. J., Rosch, E. H., & Thompson, E. T. (2017) · Project Muse (Johns Hopkins University) · Cited by 5,976 · see citing works
The Embodied Mind: Cognitive Science and Human Experience
Varela, F. J., Rosch, E., & Thompson, E. (1991) · doi:10.7551/mitpress/6730.001.0001 · Cited by 5,765 · see citing works
Darwin's dangerous idea : evolution and the meanings of life
Dennett, D. C. (1995) · DigitalGeorgetown (Georgetown University Library) · Cited by 1,998 · see citing works
Hohwy, J. (2013) · doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199682737.001.0001 · Cited by 1,914 · see citing works
Noë, A. (2005) · Medical Entomology and Zoology · Cited by 1,875 · see citing works
Craik, K. J. W. (1943) · Cited by 1,845 · see citing works
Organization for physiological homeostasis
Cannon, W. B. (1929) · Physiological Reviews · doi:10.1152/physrev.1929.9.3.399 · Cited by 1,844 · see citing works
Phytochromes and light signal perception by plants—an emerging synthesis
Smith, H. (2000) · Nature · doi:10.1038/35036500 · Cited by 1,385 · see citing works
Surfing Uncertainty: Prediction, Action, and the Embodied Mind
Clark, A. (2016) · doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190217013.001.0001 · Cited by 1,358 · see citing works
An introduction to comparative psychology.
Morgan, C. L. (1894) · Walter Scott Publishing Co eBooks · doi:10.1037/11344-000 · Cited by 1,146 · see citing works
(2015) · Cited by 1,141 · see citing works
Burge, T. (2010) · doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199581405.001.0001 · Cited by 1,137 · see citing works
Allostasis: A model of predictive regulation
Sterling, P. (2012) · Physiology & Behavior · doi:10.1016/j.physbeh.2011.06.004 · Cited by 1,073 · see citing works
Every good regulator of a system must be a model of that system †
CONANT, R. C., & ROSS ASHBY, W. (1970) · International Journal of Systems Science · doi:10.1080/00207727008920220 · Cited by 1,063 · see citing works
Maze—solving by an amoeboid organism
Nakagaki, T., Yamada, H., & Tóth, Á. (2000) · Nature · doi:10.1038/35035159 · Cited by 1,022 · see citing works
How the Body Shapes the Way We Think: A New View of Intelligence
Pfeifer, R., & Bongard, J. (2006) · Cited by 1,012 · see citing works
Friston, K. (2013) · Journal of The Royal Society Interface · doi:10.1098/rsif.2013.0475 · Cited by 754 · see citing works
Active inference and epistemic value
Friston, K., Rigoli, F., Ognibene, D., Mathys, C., Fitzgerald, T., & Pezzulo, G. (2015) · Cognitive Neuroscience · doi:10.1080/17588928.2015.1020053 · Cited by 731 · see citing works
Every Good Regulator of a System Must Be a Model of That System
Conant, R. C., & Ashby, W. R. (1991) · Facets of Systems Science · doi:10.1007/978-1-4899-0718-9_37 · Cited by 712 · see citing works
Friston, K. J., & Stephan, K. E. (2007) · Synthese · doi:10.1007/s11229-007-9237-y · Cited by 673 · see citing works
Adaptive prediction of environmental changes by microorganisms
Mitchell, A., Romano, G. H., Groisman, B., Yona, A., Dekel, E., Kupiec, M., Dahan, O., & Pilpel, Y. (2009) · Nature · doi:10.1038/nature08112 · Cited by 581 · see citing works
Predictive Behavior Within Microbial Genetic Networks
Tagkopoulos, I., Liu, Y.-C., & Tavazoie, S. (2008) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.1154456 · Cited by 519 · see citing works
TREWAVAS, A. J. (2003) · Annals of Botany · doi:10.1093/aob/mcg101 · Cited by 503 · see citing works
Hutto, D. D., & Myin, E. (2017) · The MIT Press eBooks · doi:10.7551/mitpress/9780262036115.001.0001 · Cited by 490 · see citing works
Organisms, Agency, and Evolution
Walsh, D. M. (2015) · doi:10.1017/cbo9781316402719 · Cited by 481 · see citing works
The Markov blankets of life: autonomy, active inference and the free energy principle
Kirchhoff, M., Parr, T., Palacios, E., Friston, K., & Kiverstein, J. (2018) · Journal of The Royal Society Interface · doi:10.1098/rsif.2017.0792 · Cited by 463 · see citing works
Self-citationAllostatic Self-efficacy: A Metacognitive Theory of Dyshomeostasis-Induced Fatigue and Depression
Stephan, K. E., Manjaly, Z. M., Mathys, C. D., Weber, L. A. E., Paliwal, S., Gard, T., Tittgemeyer, M., Fleming, S. M., Haker, H., Seth, A. K., et al. (2016) · Frontiers in Human Neuroscience · doi:10.3389/fnhum.2016.00550 · Cited by 437 · see citing works
Di Paolo, E., Buhrmann, T., & Barandiaran, X. (2017) · Oxford Scholarship Online · doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198786849.001.0001 · Cited by 420 · see citing works
The cognitive cell: bacterial behavior reconsidered
Lyon, P. (2015) · Frontiers in Microbiology · doi:10.3389/fmicb.2015.00264 · Cited by 411 · see citing works
Amoebae Anticipate Periodic Events
Saigusa, T., Tero, A., Nakagaki, T., & Kuramoto, Y. (2008) · Physical Review Letters · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.100.018101 · Cited by 403 · see citing works
Bruineberg, J., Kiverstein, J., & Rietveld, E. (2018) · Synthese · doi:10.1007/s11229-016-1239-1 · Cited by 383 · see citing works
Self-citationOn Having No Head: Cognition throughout Biological Systems
Baluška, F., & Levin, M. G. (2016) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00902 · Cited by 383 · see citing works
The fragmentation of reason: preface to a pragmatic theory of cognitive evaluation
(1990) · Choice Reviews Online · doi:10.5860/choice.28-1541 · Cited by 381 · see citing works
A free energy principle for biological systems
Karl, F. (2012) · Entropy · doi:10.3390/e14112100 · Cited by 377 · see citing works
Answering Schrödinger's question: A free-energy formulation
Ramstead, M. J. D., Badcock, P. B., & Friston, K. J. (2018) · Physics of Life Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.plrev.2017.09.001 · Cited by 354 · see citing works
Davies, K. J. A. (2016) · Molecular Aspects of Medicine · doi:10.1016/j.mam.2016.04.007 · Cited by 330 · see citing works
Philosophy and Predictive Processing
Thomas, M., & Wanja, W. (2017) · Cited by 290 · see citing works
Plant Behaviour and Intelligence
TREWAVAS, A. J. (2014) · Oxford University Press eBooks · doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199539543.001.0001 · Cited by 267 · see citing works
Hubey, H. M. (2002) · Kybernetes · doi:10.1108/03684920210422557 · Cited by 261 · see citing works
The biogenic approach to cognition
Lyon, P. (2005) · Cognitive Processing · doi:10.1007/s10339-005-0016-8 · Cited by 259 · see citing works
Amoeboid organism solves complex nutritional challenges
Dussutour, A., Latty, T. M., Beekman, M., & Simpson, S. J. (2010) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.0912198107 · Cited by 257 · see citing works
Bacteria are small but not stupid: cognition, natural genetic engineering and socio-bacteriology
Shapiro, J. A. (2007) · Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences · doi:10.1016/j.shpsc.2007.09.010 · Cited by 252 · see citing works
Computational mechanisms of curiosity and goal-directed exploration
Schwartenbeck, P., Passecker, J., Hauser, T. U., FitzGerald, T. H. B., Kronbichler, M., & Friston, K. J. (2019) · eLife · doi:10.7554/elife.41703 · Cited by 250 · see citing works
Habituation in non-neural organisms: evidence from slime moulds
Boisseau, R., Vogel, D. L., & Dussutour, A. (2016) · Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences · doi:10.1098/rspb.2016.0446 · Cited by 249 · see citing works
A tale of two densities: active inference is enactive inference
Ramstead, M. J. D., Kirchhoff, M. D., & Friston, K. J. (2019) · Adaptive Behavior · doi:10.1177/1059712319862774 · Cited by 229 · see citing works
The Fragmentation of Reason: Preface to a Pragmatic Theory of Cognitive Evaluation.
Lowe, E. J., & Stich, S. P. (1992) · The Philosophical Quarterly · doi:10.2307/2220454 · Cited by 225 · see citing works
Learning by Association in Plants
Gagliano, M., Vyazovskiy, V. V., Borbély, A. A., Grimonprez, M., & Depczynski, M. (2016) · Scientific Reports · doi:10.1038/srep38427 · Cited by 222 · see citing works
Aarssen, L. W. (1995) · Oikos · doi:10.2307/3545684 · Cited by 217 · see citing works
The function, action and adaptive significance of phytochrome in light‐grown plants
Casal, J. J., & Smith, H. (1989) · Plant Cell & Environment · doi:10.1111/j.1365-3040.1989.tb01966.x · Cited by 213 · see citing works
Anticipatory Systems: Philosophical, Mathematical, and Methodological Foundations
Rosen, R. (2012) · IFSR International Series in Systems Science and Systems Engineering · doi:10.1007/978-1-4614-1269-4 · Cited by 212 · see citing works
Seth, A. K. (2015) · Figshare · doi:10.15502/9783958570108 · Cited by 210 · see citing works
Principles of Minimal Cognition: Casting Cognition as Sensorimotor Coordination
van Duijn, M., Keijzer, F., & Franken, D. (2006) · Adaptive Behavior · doi:10.1177/105971230601400207 · Cited by 205 · see citing works
Beyond the brain: how body and environment shape animal and human minds
(2012) · Choice Reviews Online · doi:10.5860/choice.49-5036 · Cited by 205 · see citing works
Plants: Adaptive behavior, root-brains, and minimal cognition
Garzón, F. C., & Keijzer, F. (2011) · Adaptive Behavior · doi:10.1177/1059712311409446 · Cited by 175 · see citing works
The implications of embodiment: Cognition and communication
Kriz, J. (2012) · Psychotherapy Research · doi:10.1080/10503307.2012.719650 · Cited by 168 · see citing works
Bayes in the Brain—On Bayesian Modelling in Neuroscience
Colombo, M., & Seriès, P. (2012) · The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science · doi:10.1093/bjps/axr043 · Cited by 164 · see citing works
Corcoran, A. W., Pezzulo, G., & Hohwy, J. (2020) · Biology & Philosophy · doi:10.1007/s10539-020-09746-2 · Cited by 161 · see citing works
Clark, A. (2010) · Philosophical Studies · doi:10.1007/s11098-010-9598-9 · Cited by 147 · see citing works
Memory in Microbes: Quantifying History-Dependent Behavior in a Bacterium
Wolf, D. M., Fontaine, L., Bischofs, I., Price, G., Keasling, J. D., & Arkin, A. P. (2008) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0001700 · Cited by 143 · see citing works
Universal darwinism as a process of bayesian inference
Campbell, J. O. (2016) · Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience · doi:10.3389/fnsys.2016.00049 · Cited by 140 · see citing works
Root Apex Transition Zone As Oscillatory Zone
Baluška, F., & Mancuso, S. (2013) · Frontiers in Plant Science · doi:10.3389/fpls.2013.00354 · Cited by 137 · see citing works
Environmental Complexity and the Evolution of Cognition
(2013) · Psychology Press eBooks · doi:10.4324/9781410605313-13 · Cited by 136 · see citing works
Slime mould: The fundamental mechanisms of biological cognition
Vallverdú, J., Castro, Ò., Mayne, R., Talanov, M. O., Levin, M. G., Baluška, F., Gunji, Y. P., Dussutour, A., Zenil, H., & Adamatzky, A. (2018) · Biosystems · doi:10.1016/j.biosystems.2017.12.011 · Cited by 134 · see citing works
Allen, C. (2017) · Synthese · doi:10.1007/s11229-017-1454-4 · Cited by 132 · see citing works
Natural Agency: The Case of Bacterial Cognition
Fulda, F. C. (2017) · Journal of the American Philosophical Association · doi:10.1017/apa.2017.5 · Cited by 127 · see citing works
How portulaca seedlings avoid their neighbours
Novoplansky, A., Cohen, D., & Sachs, T. (1990) · Oecologia · doi:10.1007/bf00319791 · Cited by 127 · see citing works
Natural Variation in Preparation for Nutrient Depletion Reveals a Cost–Benefit Tradeoff
Wang, J., Atolia, E., Hua, B., Savir, Y., Escalante-Chong, R., & Springer, M. (2015) · PLoS Biology · doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1002041 · Cited by 122 · see citing works
Learning action-oriented models through active inference
Tschantz, A., Seth, A. K., & Buckley, C. L. (2020) · PLOS Computational Biology · doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1007805 · Cited by 121 · see citing works
Predicting green: really radical (plant) predictive processing
Calvo, P., & Friston, K. J. (2017) · Journal of The Royal Society Interface · doi:10.1098/rsif.2017.0096 · Cited by 119 · see citing works
The math is not the territory: navigating the free energy principle
Andrews, M. (2021) · Biology & Philosophy · doi:10.1007/s10539-021-09807-0 · Cited by 115 · see citing works
Primitive Agency and Natural Norms*
Burge, T. (2009) · Philosophy and Phenomenological Research · doi:10.1111/j.1933-1592.2009.00278.x · Cited by 114 · see citing works
Where There is Life There is Mind: In Support of a Strong Life-Mind Continuity Thesis
Kirchhoff, M. D., & Froese, T. (2017) · Entropy · doi:10.3390/e19040169 · Cited by 114 · see citing works
Content and misrepresentation in hierarchical generative models
Kiefer, A. B., & Hohwy, J. (2017) · Synthese · doi:10.1007/s11229-017-1435-7 · Cited by 111 · see citing works
(1961) · Medical Entomology and Zoology · Cited by 108 · see citing works
Salek, M. M., Carrara, F., Fernandez, V. I., Guasto, J., & Stocker, R. (2019) · Nature Communications · doi:10.1038/s41467-019-09521-2 · Cited by 101 · see citing works
First principles in the life sciences: the free-energy principle, organicism, and mechanism
Colombo, M., & Wright, C. (2021) · Synthese · doi:10.1007/s11229-018-01932-w · Cited by 101 · see citing works
Free-energy minimization in joint agent-environment systems: A niche construction perspective
Bruineberg, J. P., Rietveld, E., Parr, T., van Maanen, L., & Friston, K. J. (2018) · Journal of Theoretical Biology · doi:10.1016/j.jtbi.2018.07.002 · Cited by 98 · see citing works
BEYOND THE COMPUTER METAPHOR: BEHAVIOR AS INTERACTION
Cisek, P. (1999) · Cited by 97 · see citing works
Hurley, S. L. (2010) · The MIT Press eBooks · doi:10.7551/mitpress/9780262014038.003.0006 · Cited by 93 · see citing works
Time Course of Corticospinal Excitability and Intracortical Inhibition Just before Muscle Relaxation
Suzuki, T., Sugawara, K., Ogahara, K., & Higashi, T. (2016) · Frontiers in Human Neuroscience · doi:10.3389/fnhum.2016.00001 · Cited by 92 · see citing works
Collective behaviour and swarm intelligence in slime moulds
Reid, C. R., & Latty, T. M. (2016) · FEMS Microbiology Reviews · doi:10.1093/femsre/fuw033 · Cited by 89 · see citing works
Hurley, S. L. (2010) · The MIT Press eBooks · doi:10.7551/mitpress/8535.003.0006 · Cited by 87 · see citing works
Physarum can compute shortest paths
Vincenzo Bonifaci, A., Mehlhorn, K., & Varma, G. (2012) · Journal of Theoretical Biology · doi:10.1016/j.jtbi.2012.06.017 · Cited by 85 · see citing works
Embodied inference: or "I think therefore I am, if I am what I think"
Friston, K. J. (2011) · Cited by 84 · see citing works
Self-supervision, normativity and the free energy principle
Hohwy, J. (2020) · Synthese · doi:10.1007/s11229-020-02622-2 · Cited by 81 · see citing works
Individuality, subjectivity, and minimal cognition
Godfrey-Smith, P. (2016) · Biology & Philosophy · doi:10.1007/s10539-016-9543-1 · Cited by 76 · see citing works
Bacterial observations: a rudimentary form of intelligence?
Hellingwerf, K. J. (2005) · Trends in Microbiology · doi:10.1016/j.tim.2005.02.001 · Cited by 73 · see citing works
How to Knit Your Own Markov Blanket:
Clark, A. (2017) · PhilPapers (PhilPapers Foundation) · doi:10.15502/9783958573031 · Cited by 72 · see citing works
Maris, A. F., Assumpção, A. L. K., Bonatto, D., Brendel, M., & Henriques, J. A. P. (2001) · Current Genetics · doi:10.1007/s002940100194 · Cited by 71 · see citing works
The Effects of Nutrient Dynamics on Root Patch Choice
Shemesh, H., Arbiv, A., Gersani, M., Ovadia, O., & Novoplansky, A. (2010) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0010824 · Cited by 69 · see citing works
Being Realist about Bayes, and the Predictive Processing Theory of Mind
Colombo, M., Elkin, L., & Hartmann, S. (2018) · The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science · doi:10.1093/bjps/axy059 · Cited by 67 · see citing works
Novoplansky, A. (2015) · Cognitive systems monographs · doi:10.1007/978-3-319-22599-9_5 · Cited by 57 · see citing works
The Neural Organ Explains the Mind
Hohwy, J. (2015) · doi:10.15502/9783958570016 · Cited by 54 · see citing works
Are plants cognitive? A reply to Adams
Segundo‐Ortin, M., & Calvo, P. (2018) · Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A · doi:10.1016/j.shpsa.2018.12.001 · Cited by 54 · see citing works
Adams, F. (2017) · Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A · doi:10.1016/j.shpsa.2017.11.007 · Cited by 54 · see citing works
Living models or life modelled? On the use of models in the free energy principle
van Es, T. (2020) · Adaptive Behavior · doi:10.1177/1059712320918678 · Cited by 49 · see citing works
Developmental responses of portulaca seedlings to conflicting spectral signals
Novoplansky, A. (1991) · Oecologia · doi:10.1007/bf00328414 · Cited by 47 · see citing works
Neural and phenotypic representation under the free-energy principle
Ramstead, M. J. D., Hesp, C., Tschantz, A., Smith, R., Constant, A., & Friston, K. (2021) · Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2020.11.024 · Cited by 43 · see citing works
Pinto, D., & Mascher, T. (2016) · Current Genetics · doi:10.1007/s00294-016-0569-3 · Cited by 35 · see citing works
Demarcating cognition: the cognitive life sciences
Keijzer, F. (2020) · Synthese · doi:10.1007/s11229-020-02797-8 · Cited by 35 · see citing works
Predictions in the eye of the beholder: an active inference account of Watt governors
Baltieri, M., Buckley, C. L., & Bruineberg, J. P. (2020) · Conference on Artificial Life (ALIFE) · doi:10.1162/isal_a_00288 · Cited by 31 · see citing works
Cognition and intelligence of green plants. Information for animal scientists
Calvo, P., & TREWAVAS, A. J. (2020) · Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications · doi:10.1016/j.bbrc.2020.07.139 · Cited by 27 · see citing works
Of Bayes and bullets : an embodied, situated, targeting-based account of predictive processing
Anderson, M. L. (2017) · Gutenberg Open Science · doi:10.25358/openscience-627 · Cited by 26 · see citing works
Information and Metabolism in Bacterial Chemotaxis
Auletta, G. (2013) · Entropy · doi:10.3390/e15010311 · Cited by 24 · see citing works
Sims, M. (2020) · Synthese · doi:10.1007/s11229-020-02876-w · Cited by 23 · see citing works
Self-citationFultot, M. F., Frazier, P. A., Turvey, M. T., & Carello, C. (2019) · Ecological Psychology · doi:10.1080/10407413.2019.1615205 · Cited by 23 · see citing works
The Evolution and Function of Cognition
Goodson, F. E. (2002) · Psychology Press eBooks · doi:10.4324/9781410606372 · Cited by 20 · see citing works
Sugars: their origin in photosynthesis and subsequent biological interconversions
Nevins, D. J. (1995) · American Journal of Clinical Nutrition · doi:10.1093/ajcn/61.4.915s · Cited by 20 · see citing works
Zoocentrism in the weeds? Cultivating plant models for cognitive yield
Linson, A., & Calvo, P. (2020) · Biology & Philosophy · doi:10.1007/s10539-020-09766-y · Cited by 19 · see citing works
Clark, A. (2019) · Oxford University Press eBooks · doi:10.1093/oso/9780190662813.003.0020 · Cited by 15 · see citing works
The evolution and function of cognition
(2003) · Choice Reviews Online · doi:10.5860/choice.40-4303 · Cited by 14 · see citing works
Quick’n’Lean or Slow and Rich?
Hohwy, J. (2019) · Oxford University Press eBooks · doi:10.1093/oso/9780190662813.003.0015 · Cited by 11 · see citing works
Sims, M. (2019) · Philosophical Psychology · doi:10.1080/09515089.2019.1646898 · Cited by 9 · see citing works
Self-citationCurrent Controversies in Philosophy of Cognitive Science
(2020) · Routledge eBooks · doi:10.4324/9781003026273 · Cited by 8 · see citing works
Seth, A. K. (2019) · Oxford University Press eBooks · doi:10.1093/oso/9780190662813.003.0018 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
Being a beast machine: The origins of selfhood in control-oriented interoceptive inferencePreprint
Seth, A. K. (2018) · doi:10.31234/osf.io/vg5da · Cited by 6 · see citing works
Adams, F. (2019) · Oxford University Press eBooks · doi:10.1093/oso/9780190662813.003.0003 · Cited by 6 · see citing works
Embodied Cognition and the Neural Reuse Hypothesis
Kiverstein, J. D. (2020) · Routledge eBooks · doi:10.4324/9781003026273-11 · Cited by 6 · see citing works
Self-citationCellular stress response: From homeostatic to allostatic perspective
Alfieri, N. (2008) · Bioscience hypotheses · doi:10.1016/j.bihy.2008.09.002 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
Welcome to new faces, and other changes at JEB
Hoppeler, H. H., & Phillips, K. L. (2005) · Journal of Experimental Biology · doi:10.1242/jeb.02013 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
Identification and characterization of a cathepsin B-like protease in Physarum sclerotium
Furuhashi, K. (2002) · The International Journal of Biochemistry & Cell Biology · doi:10.1016/s1357-2725(02)00072-9 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
3 of the 125 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Naturalizing relevance realization: why agency and cognition are fundamentally not computational
Jaeger, J., Riedl, A., Djedovic, A., Vervaeke, J., & Walsh, D. M. (2024) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1362658 · Cited by 46 · see citing works
What is cognitive about ‘plant cognition’?
Lee, J. (2023) · Biology & Philosophy · doi:10.1007/s10539-023-09907-z · Cited by 42 · see citing works
Deane, G. (2021) · Neuroscience of Consciousness · doi:10.1093/nc/niab024 · Cited by 38 · see citing works
“This process of selecting actions that minimize expected free energy, which has been dubbed ‘allostatic control’ (Kiverstein and Sims 2021), is not itself thought to underwrite phenomenal selfhood (and experience).”
BackgroundMetaphors are embodied otherwise they would not be metaphors
Torres–Martínez, S. (2022) · Linguistics Vanguard · doi:10.1515/lingvan-2019-0083 · Cited by 24 · see citing works
Mann, S. F., Pain, R., & Kirchhoff, M. D. (2022) · Biology & Philosophy · doi:10.1007/s10539-022-09864-z · Cited by 24 · see citing works
A continuum of intentionality: linking the biogenic and anthropogenic approaches to cognition
Sims, M. (2021) · Biology & Philosophy · doi:10.1007/s10539-021-09827-w · Cited by 21 · see citing works
Self-citationSims, M., & Pezzulo, G. (2021) · Synthese · doi:10.1007/s11229-021-03140-5 · Cited by 23 · see citing works
Self-citationUnderstanding Predictive Processing. A Review
(2021) · Avant · doi:10.26913/avant.2021.01.04 · Cited by 13 · see citing works
Plant behavior: Theoretical and technological advances
Bianchi, M., Avesani, S., Bonato, B., Dadda, M., Guerra, S., Ravazzolo, L., Simonetti, V., & Castiello, U. (2025) · Current Opinion in Psychology · doi:10.1016/j.copsyc.2025.102026 · Cited by 11 · see citing works
Extended Predictive Minds: do Markov Blankets Matter?
Facchin, M. (2021) · Review of Philosophy and Psychology · doi:10.1007/s13164-021-00607-9 · Cited by 10 · see citing works
Self-Concern Across Scales: A Biologically Inspired Direction for Embodied Artificial Intelligence
Sims, M. (2022) · Frontiers in Neurorobotics · doi:10.3389/fnbot.2022.857614 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
Self-citationA case for aneural cognition: E. coli and its cognitive repertoire
Just, B. B., & de Farías, S. T. (2025) · Biosystems · doi:10.1016/j.biosystems.2025.105645 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
Is Free Energy an Organizational Principle in Spiking Neural Networks?
Fernández-León, J. A., Arlego, M., & Acosta, G. G. (2022) · Lecture notes in computer science · doi:10.1007/978-3-031-16770-6_7 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
Morphology Choice Affects the Evolution of Affordance Detection in Robots
Pigozzi, F., Woodman, S. J., Medvet, E., Kramer-Bottiglio, R., & Bongard, J. (2023) · Annual Conference on Genetic and Evolutionary Computation · doi:10.1145/3583131.3590505 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
Scientists Invent New Hypotheses, Do Brains?
Fresco, N., & Elber‐Dorozko, L. (2024) · Cognitive Science · doi:10.1111/cogs.13400 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Developmental Bioelectricity as an Explanatory Framework for Cognition and Meaning
Pietarinen, A., Beni, M. D., & Shumilina, V. (2025) · Biosemiotics · doi:10.1007/s12304-025-09593-2 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
An instrumentalist take on the models of the Free-Energy Principle
Pisano, N. A. (2023) · Synthese · doi:10.1007/s11229-023-04111-8
La ricerca di un marchio normativo della cognizione
Cerasa, M. (2023) · doi:10.35948/dilef/2023.4306
García, S. J. M. (2024) · Entreciencias diálogos en la Sociedad del Conocimiento · doi:10.22201/enesl.20078064e.2024.26.86816
Fictional minds extend for real
Facchin, M. (2025) · Philosophical Psychology · doi:10.1080/09515089.2025.2516123
Plant Characteristics and Activities
Bianchi, M. (2025) · Philosophical studies series · doi:10.1007/978-3-032-01328-6_3
TAMING of the abrupt emergence
Beni, M. D., & Pietarinen, A. (2026) · Synthese · doi:10.1007/s11229-025-05413-9
Where Mechanism Meets Normativity: Predictive Processing in Search of Explanatory Constraints
Piekarski, M. (2026) · Minds and Machines · doi:10.1007/s11023-026-09799-4
- Authors
- Kiverstein, J., & Sims, M.
- Affiliations
- Amsterdam University Medical Centers (NL)
- Corresponding author
- Kiverstein, Julian
- ORCID
- Kiverstein, Julian
- Venue
- Biology & Philosophy
- Published
- 2021-04
- Volume
- 36
- Issue
- 2
- ISSN
- 0169-3867 (ISSN-L)
- 1572-8404
- OpenAlex
- W3150764730
- Cited by
- 23
- References
- 125
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 5
- FWCI
- 2.11
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Locations
- Biology & Philosophy (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- H2020 European Research Council (ERC StG 679190)
- Universiteit van Amsterdam (ABC Project Grant)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Embodied and Extended Cognition
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Philosophy and Theoretical Science
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › History and Philosophy of Science › Philosophy and History of Science
- Keywords
- free energy principle, Karl Friston, emergence of cognition, microorganisms, plants, nervous system, adaptive behavior, biological adaptation, philosophy of mind
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
