De-anthropomorphizing the mind: life as a cognitive spectrum in a unified framework for biological minds
Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience January 22, 2026 Gordana Dodig-Crnković 1 citation
Cognition is not limited to organisms with nervous systems but is an organizational property of all living systems, from single cells to complex animals. Living systems engage in learning, memory, and goal-directed behavior by transforming information embodied in their physical structures and interactions with the environment. This info-computational (ICON) framework views these processes as present from the start of life, becoming more integrated and temporally extended with increasing biological complexity. It explains how complex cognition, awareness, and mind arise from basic life-regulatory dynamics and generates testable implications for basal cognition, developmental biology, and embodied artificial systems.