Cognition coming about: Self-organisation and free-energy: Commentary on Wright, J.J. and Bourke, P.D. (2020) “The growth of cognition: Free energy minimization and the embryogenesis of cortical computation”

Abstract

Wright and Bourke's compelling article rightly points out that existing models of embryogenesis fail to explain the mechanisms and functional significance of the dynamic connections among neurons. We pursue their account of Dynamic Logic by appealing to the Markov blanket formalism that underwrites the Free Energy Principle. We submit that this allows one to model embryogenesis as self-organisation in a dynamical system that minimises free-energy. The ensuing formalism may be extended to also explain the autonomous emergence of cognition, specifically in the brain, as a dynamic self-assembling process.