scholarly journals Interoception as modeling, allostasis as control

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eli Sennesh ◽  
Jordan E. Theriault ◽  
Dana H. Brooks ◽  
Jan-Willem van de Meent ◽  
Lisa Feldman Barrett ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Motor Control ◽  
Control Theory ◽  
Control Problem ◽  
Performance Feedback ◽  
The Body ◽  
The Brain

The brain regulates the body by anticipating its needs and attempting to meet them before they arise – a process called allostasis. Allostasis requires a model of the changing sensory conditions within the body, a process called interoception. In this paper, we examine how interoception may provide performance feedback for allostasis. We suggest studying allostasis in terms of control theory, reviewing control theory’s applications to related issues in physiology, motor control, and decision making. We synthesize these by relating them to the important properties of allostatic regulation as a control problem. We then sketch a novel formalism for how the brain might perform allostatic control of the viscera by analogy to skeletomotor control, including a mathematical view on how interoception acts as performance feedback for allostasis. Finally, we suggest ways to test implications of our hypotheses.

scholarly journals The emulation theory of representation: Motor control, imagery, and perception

2004 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 377-396 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rick Grush
Keyword(s):  
Motor Control ◽  
Sensory Feedback ◽  
Sensory Input ◽  
Neural Circuits ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
The Body ◽  
Feedback Delay ◽  
Run Off ◽  
Effects Of Feedback ◽  
The Brain

The emulation theory of representation is developed and explored as a framework that can revealingly synthesize a wide variety of representational functions of the brain. The framework is based on constructs from control theory (forward models) and signal processing (Kalman filters). The idea is that in addition to simply engaging with the body and environment, the brain constructs neural circuits that act as models of the body and environment. During overt sensorimotor engagement, these models are driven by efference copies in parallel with the body and environment, in order to provide expectations of the sensory feedback, and to enhance and process sensory information. These models can also be run off-line in order to produce imagery, estimate outcomes of different actions, and evaluate and develop motor plans. The framework is initially developed within the context of motor control, where it has been shown that inner models running in parallel with the body can reduce the effects of feedback delay problems. The same mechanisms can account for motor imagery as the off-line driving of the emulator via efference copies. The framework is extended to account for visual imagery as the off-line driving of an emulator of the motor-visual loop. I also show how such systems can provide for amodal spatial imagery. Perception, including visual perception, results from such models being used to form expectations of, and to interpret, sensory input. I close by briefly outlining other cognitive functions that might also be synthesized within this framework, including reasoning, theory of mind phenomena, and language.

An action-oriented perspective on space and affordances

2021 ◽  
pp. 73-140
Author(s):  
Michael A. Arbib
Keyword(s):  
Motor Control ◽  
Body Schema ◽  
Cognitive Maps ◽  
The Body ◽  
Perceptual Cues ◽  
Motor Patterns ◽  
General Rules ◽  
Hand Eye Coordination ◽  
Ongoing Behavior ◽  
The Brain

Architects design spaces that offer perceptual cues, affordances, for our various effectivities. Lina Bo Bardi’s São Paulo Museum demonstrates how praxic and contemplative actions are interleaved—space is effective and affective. Navigation often extends beyond wayfinding to support ongoing behavior. Scripts set out the general rules for a particular kind of behavior, and may suggest places that a building must provide. Cognitive maps support wayfinding. Other maps in the brain represent sensory or motor patterns of activity. Juhani Pallasmaa’s reflections on The Thinking Hand lead into a view of how the brain mediates that thinking, modeling hand–eye coordination at two levels. The first coordinates perceptual and motor schemas. The body schema is an adaptable collage of perceptual and motor skills. The second coordinates the ventral “what” pathway that can support planning of actions, and the dorsal “how” pathway that links affordance-related details to motor control. A complementary challenge is understanding how schemas in the head relate to social schemas. Finally, the chapter compares the cognitive challenges in designing a building and in developing a computational brain model of cognitive processes.

scholarly journals Control of movement vigor and decision making during foraging

2018 ◽  
Vol 115 (44) ◽  
pp. E10476-E10485 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tehrim Yoon ◽  
Robert B. Geary ◽  
Alaa A. Ahmed ◽  
Reza Shadmehr
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Motor Control ◽  
Movement Speed ◽  
Control Problems ◽  
Image Content ◽  
Local Measure ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Brain ◽  
High Effort

During foraging, animals decide how long to stay at a patch and harvest reward, and then, they move with certain vigor to another location. How does the brain decide when to leave, and how does it determine the speed of the ensuing movement? Here, we considered the possibility that both the decision-making and the motor control problems aimed to maximize a single normative utility: the sum of all rewards acquired minus all efforts expended divided by total time. This optimization could be achieved if the brain compared a local measure of utility with its history. To test the theory, we examined behavior of people as they gazed at images: they chose how long to look at the image (harvesting information) and then moved their eyes to another image, controlling saccade speed. We varied reward via image content and effort via image eccentricity, and then, we measured how these changes affected decision making (gaze duration) and motor control (saccade speed). After a history of low rewards, people increased gaze duration and decreased saccade speed. In anticipation of future effort, they lowered saccade speed and increased gaze duration. After a history of high effort, they elevated their saccade speed and increased gaze duration. Therefore, the theory presented a principled way with which the brain may control two aspects of behavior: movement speed and harvest duration. Our experiments confirmed many (but not all) of the predictions, suggesting that harvest duration and movement speed, fundamental aspects of behavior during foraging, may be governed by a shared principle of control.

Continuous Decisions

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seng Bum Michael Yoo ◽  
Benjamin Hayden ◽  
John Pearson
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Control Theory ◽  
Hierarchical Structure ◽  
Action Planning ◽  
Extended Period ◽  
Microeconomic Theory ◽  
Engineering Control ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Academic Study

Humans and other animals evolved to make decisions that extend over time with continuous and ever-changing options. Nonetheless, the academic study of decision-making is mostly limited to the simple case of choice between two options. Here we advocate that the study of choice should expand to include continuous decisions. Continuous decisions, by our definition, involve a continuum of possible responses and take place over an extended period of time during which the response is continuously subject to modification. In most continuous decisions, the range of options can fluctuate and is affected by recent responses, making consideration of reciprocal feedback between choices and the environment essential. The study of continuous decisions raises new questions, such as how abstract processes of valuation and comparison are co-implemented with action planning and execution, how we simulate the large number of possible futures our choices lead to, and how our brains employ hierarchical structure to make choices more efficiently. While microeconomic theory has proven invaluable for discrete decisions, we propose that engineering control theory may serve as a better foundation for continuous ones. And while the concept of value has proven foundational for discrete decisions, goal states and policies may prove more useful for continuous ones.

EXPERIMENTAL ASSESSMENT OF THE NANOPARTICLES TOXICITY OF NICKEL OXIDE IN TWO SIZES IN THE SUBCHRONIC EXPERIMENT

2018 ◽  
pp. 30-35
Author(s):  
M.P. Sutunkova ◽  
B.A. Katsnelson ◽  
L.I. Privalova ◽  
S.N. Solovjeva ◽  
V.B. Gurvich ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Nickel Oxide ◽  
Nervous Activity ◽  
Equal Mass ◽  
The Body ◽  
Subchronic Toxicity ◽  
Physiological Mechanisms ◽  
Nickel Oxide Nanoparticles ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Nanoparticles Toxicity

We conducted a comparative assessment of the nickel oxide nanoparticles toxicity (NiO) of two sizes (11 and 25 nm) according to a number of indicators of the body state after repeated intraperitoneal injections of these particles suspensions. At equal mass doses, NiO nanoparticles have been found to cause various manifestations of systemic subchronic toxicity with a particularly pronounced effect on liver, kidney function, the body’s antioxidant system, lipid metabolism, white and red blood, redox metabolism, spleen damage, and some disorders of nervous activity allegedly related to the possibility of nickel penetration into the brain from the blood. The relationship between the diameter and toxicity of particles is ambiguous, which may be due to differences in toxicokinetics, which is controlled by both physiological mechanisms and direct penetration of nanoparticles through biological barriers and, finally, unequal solubility.

The musculature and nervous system of the plerocercoid larva of Dibothriorhynchus grossum (Rud.)

Parasitology ◽  
1941 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 373-389 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gwendolen Rees
Keyword(s):  
Nervous System ◽  
Muscle Mass ◽  
Nerve Cells ◽  
The Body ◽  
Lateral Nerve ◽  
Posterior Median ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Ventral Muscle ◽  
Nerve Cords ◽  
Extrinsic Muscles

1. The structure of the proboscides of the larva of Dibothriorhynchus grossum (Rud.) is described. Each proboscis is provided with four sets of extrinsic muscles, and there is an anterior dorso-ventral muscle mass connected to all four proboscides.2. The musculature of the body and scolex is described.3. The nervous system consists of a brain, two lateral nerve cords, two outer and inner anterior nerves on each side, twenty-five pairs of bothridial nerves to each bothridium, four longitudinal bothridial nerves connecting these latter before their entry into the bothridia, four proboscis nerves arising from the brain, and a series of lateral nerves supplying the lateral regions of the body.4. The so-called ganglia contain no nerve cells, these are present only in the posterior median commissure which is therefore the nerve centre.

scholarly journals The brain dynamics of architectural affordances during transition

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zakaria Djebbara ◽  
Lars Brorson Fich ◽  
Klaus Gramann
Keyword(s):  
Occipital Cortex ◽  
The Body ◽  
Brain Dynamics ◽  
Alpha Band ◽  
Time Frequency ◽  
Posterior Cingulate ◽  
Sensory Signals ◽  
Event Related Desynchronization ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Attentional Mechanisms

AbstractAction is a medium of collecting sensory information about the environment, which in turn is shaped by architectural affordances. Affordances characterize the fit between the physical structure of the body and capacities for movement and interaction with the environment, thus relying on sensorimotor processes associated with exploring the surroundings. Central to sensorimotor brain dynamics, the attentional mechanisms directing the gating function of sensory signals share neuronal resources with motor-related processes necessary to inferring the external causes of sensory signals. Such a predictive coding approach suggests that sensorimotor dynamics are sensitive to architectural affordances that support or suppress specific kinds of actions for an individual. However, how architectural affordances relate to the attentional mechanisms underlying the gating function for sensory signals remains unknown. Here we demonstrate that event-related desynchronization of alpha-band oscillations in parieto-occipital and medio-temporal regions covary with the architectural affordances. Source-level time–frequency analysis of data recorded in a motor-priming Mobile Brain/Body Imaging experiment revealed strong event-related desynchronization of the alpha band to originate from the posterior cingulate complex, the parahippocampal region as well as the occipital cortex. Our results firstly contribute to the understanding of how the brain resolves architectural affordances relevant to behaviour. Second, our results indicate that the alpha-band originating from the occipital cortex and parahippocampal region covaries with the architectural affordances before participants interact with the environment, whereas during the interaction, the posterior cingulate cortex and motor areas dynamically reflect the affordable behaviour. We conclude that the sensorimotor dynamics reflect behaviour-relevant features in the designed environment.

scholarly journals SARS-CoV-2: is there neuroinvasion?

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Conor McQuaid ◽  
Molly Brady ◽  
Rashid Deane
Keyword(s):  
Respiratory Distress ◽  
Vascular Dysfunction ◽  
Multiorgan Failure ◽  
Neurological Complications ◽  
Wide Distribution ◽  
The Body ◽  
Health Conditions ◽  
Main Body ◽  
Beneficial Effects ◽  
The Brain

Abstract Background SARS-CoV-2, a coronavirus (CoV), is known to cause acute respiratory distress syndrome, and a number of non-respiratory complications, particularly in older male patients with prior health conditions, such as obesity, diabetes and hypertension. These prior health conditions are associated with vascular dysfunction, and the CoV disease 2019 (COVID-19) complications include multiorgan failure and neurological problems. While the main route of entry into the body is inhalation, this virus has been found in many tissues, including the choroid plexus and meningeal vessels, and in neurons and CSF. Main body We reviewed SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19, ACE2 distribution and beneficial effects, the CNS vascular barriers, possible mechanisms by which the virus enters the brain, outlined prior health conditions (obesity, hypertension and diabetes), neurological COVID-19 manifestation and the aging cerebrovascualture. The overall aim is to provide the general reader with a breadth of information on this type of virus and the wide distribution of its main receptor so as to better understand the significance of neurological complications, uniqueness of the brain, and the pre-existing medical conditions that affect brain. The main issue is that there is no sound evidence for large flux of SARS-CoV-2 into brain, at present, compared to its invasion of the inhalation pathways. Conclusions While SARS-CoV-2 is detected in brains from severely infected patients, it is unclear on how it gets there. There is no sound evidence of SARS-CoV-2 flux into brain to significantly contribute to the overall outcomes once the respiratory system is invaded by the virus. The consensus, based on the normal route of infection and presence of SARS-CoV-2 in severely infected patients, is that the olfactory mucosa is a possible route into brain. Studies are needed to demonstrate flux of SARS-CoV-2 into brain, and its replication in the parenchyma to demonstrate neuroinvasion. It is possible that the neurological manifestations of COVID-19 are a consequence of mainly cardio-respiratory distress and multiorgan failure. Understanding potential SARS-CoV-2 neuroinvasion pathways could help to better define the non-respiratory neurological manifestation of COVID-19.

scholarly journals Millimeter (MM) wave and microwave frequency radiation produce deeply penetrating effects: the biology and the physics

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin L. Pall
Keyword(s):  
Magnetic Fields ◽  
Electric Fields ◽  
Cardiac Activity ◽  
Maximum Level ◽  
Voltage Sensor ◽  
The Body ◽  
Time Varying ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Mm Waves

Abstract Millimeter wave (MM-wave) electromagnetic fields (EMFs) are predicted to not produce penetrating effects in the body. The electric but not magnetic part of MM-EMFs are almost completely absorbed within the outer 1 mm of the body. Rodents are reported to have penetrating MM-wave impacts on the brain, the myocardium, liver, kidney and bone marrow. MM-waves produce electromagnetic sensitivity-like changes in rodent, frog and skate tissues. In humans, MM-waves have penetrating effects including impacts on the brain, producing EEG changes and other neurological/neuropsychiatric changes, increases in apparent electromagnetic hypersensitivity and produce changes on ulcers and cardiac activity. This review focuses on several issues required to understand penetrating effects of MM-waves and microwaves: 1. Electronically generated EMFs are coherent, producing much higher electrical and magnetic forces then do natural incoherent EMFs. 2. The fixed relationship between electrical and magnetic fields found in EMFs in a vacuum or highly permeable medium such as air, predicted by Maxwell’s equations, breaks down in other materials. Specifically, MM-wave electrical fields are almost completely absorbed in the outer 1 mm of the body due to the high dielectric constant of biological aqueous phases. However, the magnetic fields are very highly penetrating. 3. Time-varying magnetic fields have central roles in producing highly penetrating effects. The primary mechanism of EMF action is voltage-gated calcium channel (VGCC) activation with the EMFs acting via their forces on the voltage sensor, rather than by depolarization of the plasma membrane. Two distinct mechanisms, an indirect and a direct mechanism, are consistent with and predicted by the physics, to explain penetrating MM-wave VGCC activation via the voltage sensor. Time-varying coherent magnetic fields, as predicted by the Maxwell–Faraday version of Faraday’s law of induction, can put forces on ions dissolved in aqueous phases deep within the body, regenerating coherent electric fields which activate the VGCC voltage sensor. In addition, time-varying magnetic fields can directly put forces on the 20 charges in the VGCC voltage sensor. There are three very important findings here which are rarely recognized in the EMF scientific literature: coherence of electronically generated EMFs; the key role of time-varying magnetic fields in generating highly penetrating effects; the key role of both modulating and pure EMF pulses in greatly increasing very short term high level time-variation of magnetic and electric fields. It is probable that genuine safety guidelines must keep nanosecond timescale-variation of coherent electric and magnetic fields below some maximum level in order to produce genuine safety. These findings have important implications with regard to 5G radiation.

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