A. Clark

2 papers in the library · 95 citations · publishing 2018-2025

Papers

The Active Inference Approach to Ecological Perception: General Information Dynamics for Natural and Artificial Embodied Cognition

Frontiers in Robotics and AI March 8, 2018 A. Linson, A. Clark, S. Ramamoorthy et al. 94 citations

The active inference framework (AIF) offers a unified, naturalistic account of life, mind, and consciousness by grounding them in the principle of free energy minimization. It bridges computational neuroscience, robotics, ecological psychology, and phenomenology, treating particles, organisms, and artificial agents under a common information-theoretic foundation. The paper introduces AIF, then examines its implications for evolutionary theory, ecological psychology, embodied phenomenology, and robotics, concluding with considerations for machine consciousness.

DOI: 10.3389/frobt.2018.00021 Full text Medicine Psychology Computer science Philosophy +1

Transforming Amino Acids into Serotonin 5-HT 2A Receptor Ligands Using Photochemistry

Journal of the American Chemical Society December 16, 2025 J.O.S. Beckett, Ryan Buzdygon, Steven Nguyen et al. 1 citation

A new chemical method uses light to trigger a cyclization reaction that attaches a functional group to the fourth carbon of the indole ring, enabling the efficient synthesis of ring-constrained tryptamine analogs. Amino acids were linked to tryptamine and exposed to UV light to produce lactams bridging specific positions on the indole structure. The resulting reduced lactams, called azocinoindoles, were tested for activity at the serotonin 5-HT2A receptor. In computer models and lab experiments, these compounds acted as full or partial activators of the receptor's Gq signaling pathway. In mice, they suppressed the head-twitch response, a behavior linked to hallucinogenic effects, suggesting these compounds are nonhallucinogenic 5-HT2A agonists.

DOI: 10.1021/jacs.5c19817 Full text Serotonin Indole test Agonist Tryptophan +6