Keep your options open: an information-based driving principle for sensorimotor systems

PLoS One. 2008;3(12):e4018. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0004018. Epub 2008 Dec 24.

Abstract

The central resource processed by the sensorimotor system of an organism is information. We propose an information-based quantity that allows one to characterize the efficiency of the perception-action loop of an abstract organism model. It measures the potential of the organism to imprint information on the environment via its actuators in a way that can be recaptured by its sensors, essentially quantifying the options available and visible to the organism. Various scenarios suggest that such a quantity could identify the preferred direction of evolution or adaptation of the sensorimotor loop of organisms.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Biological Evolution
  • Information Theory*
  • Models, Neurological*
  • Movement / physiology
  • Neural Networks, Computer
  • Power, Psychological*
  • Psychomotor Performance / physiology*
  • Robotics
  • Sensation / physiology*