Embodied cognitive morphogenesis as a route to intelligent systems.

Summary

The authors propose that embryological development and embodied cognition are complementary, not contradictory, and can be unified as embodied cognitive morphogenesis. In this view, morphogenetic symmetry breaking creates specialized subsystems that enable autonomous behaviors, producing fluctuating asymmetry and information-processing capabilities. Three key properties—acquisition, generativity, and transformation—are captured by models such as tensegrity networks, differentiation trees, and embodied hypernetworks. These models help identify symmetry-breaking events in developmental time. The authors conclude by framing these systems as connectogenesis, linking phenotypic parts into an approach useful for analyzing organisms and designing bioinspired computational agents.

Study at a glance

Abstract

The embryological view of development is that coordinated gene expression, cellular physics and migration provides the basis for phenotypic complexity. This stands in contrast with the prevailing view of embodied cognition, which claims that informational feedback between organisms and their environment is key to the emergence of intelligent behaviours. We aim to unite these two perspectives as embodied cognitive morphogenesis, in which morphogenetic symmetry breaking produces specialized organismal subsystems which serve as a substrate for the emergence of autonomous behaviours. As embodied cognitive morphogenesis produces fluctuating phenotypic asymmetry and the emergence of information processing subsystems, we observe three distinct properties: acquisition, generativity and transformation. Using a generic organismal agent, such properties are captured through models such as tensegrity networks, differentiation trees and embodied hypernetworks, providing a means to identify the context of various symmetry-breaking events in developmental time. Related concepts that help us define this phenotype further include concepts such as modularity, homeostasis and 4E (embodied, enactive, embedded and extended) cognition. We conclude by considering these autonomous developmental systems as a process called connectogenesis, connecting various parts of the emerged phenotype into an approach useful for the analysis of organisms and the design of bioinspired computational agents.