ADAPTIVE CONTROL LOOPS AS AN INTERMEDIATE MINDBRAIN REDUCTION BASIS

Abstract

Reduction can be defined as "the explanation of a theory or a set of experimental laws established in one area of inquiry, by a theory usually though not invariably formulated for some other domain." (Nagel, 1961). When the reduced theory contains terms or concepts that do not appear in the reducing theory, it is "heterogeneous". The motivation for introducing heterogenous reducing terms is that having bridge laws between two classes of entities clarifies the causal structure underlying the reduced theory. Assuming that folk psychology and experimental psychology offer alternative, overlapping theories of mental states (i.e. explain and predict how the latter are caused, how they influence each other in perception, motivation and action), the relevant reduction basis for these theories is often taken to be an heterogeneous theory, whose objects are neural states. Neuroscience however, studies neural states at different time scales and functional levels (e.g. molecular, cellular, developmental, behavioral, etc). It will be argued that the level of adaptive control loops, where neurons are organized in feedforward and feedback causally contiguous assemblies, provides the relevant functional level where an adequate reduction basis for mental states can be obtained.