Perception as a closed-loop convergence process

  1. Ehud Ahissar  Is a corresponding author
  2. Eldad Assa
  1. Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel

Abstract

Perception of external objects involves sensory acquisition via the relevant sensory organs. A widely-accepted assumption is that the sensory organ is the first station in a serial chain of processing circuits leading to an internal circuit in which a percept emerges. This open-loop scheme, in which the interaction between the sensory organ and the environment is not affected by its concurrent downstream neuronal processing, is strongly challenged by behavioral and anatomical data. We present here a hypothesis in which the perception of external objects is a closed-loop dynamical process encompassing loops that integrate the organism and its environment and converging towards organism-environment steady-states. We discuss the consistency of closed-loop perception (CLP) with empirical data and show that it can be synthesized in a robotic setup. Testable predictions are proposed for empirical distinction between open and closed loop schemes of perception.

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Author details

  1. Ehud Ahissar

    Department of Neurobiology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
    For correspondence
    ehud.ahissar@weizmann.ac.il
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  2. Eldad Assa

    Department of Neurobiology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

Copyright

© 2016, Ahissar & Assa

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.

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  1. Ehud Ahissar
  2. Eldad Assa
(2016)
Perception as a closed-loop convergence process
eLife 5:e12830.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.12830

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https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.12830