The free energy principle for action and perception: A mathematical review

The 'free energy principle' (FEP) has been suggested to provide a unified theory of the brain, integrating data and theory relating to action, perception, and learning. The theory and implementation of the FEP combines insights from Helmholtzian 'perception as inference', machine...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:arXiv.org 2017-05
Main Authors: Buckley, Christopher L, Kim, Chang Sub, McGregor, Simon, Seth, Anil K
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Brain
Free energy
Learning theory
Machine learning
Mathematical analysis
Perception
Statistical inference
Statistical thermodynamics
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:The 'free energy principle' (FEP) has been suggested to provide a unified theory of the brain, integrating data and theory relating to action, perception, and learning. The theory and implementation of the FEP combines insights from Helmholtzian 'perception as inference', machine learning theory, and statistical thermodynamics. Here, we provide a detailed mathematical evaluation of a suggested biologically plausible implementation of the FEP that has been widely used to develop the theory. Our objectives are (i) to describe within a single article the mathematical structure of this implementation of the FEP; (ii) provide a simple but complete agent-based model utilising the FEP; (iii) disclose the assumption structure of this implementation of the FEP to help elucidate its significance for the brain sciences.
ISSN:2331-8422