Homeostatic regulation and hierarchical reflex control as active inference
Active inference treats reflexes, conditioned responses and instrumental behaviour as levels of one hierarchical model. Pezzulo, Rigoli and Friston (2015) argue that closed loop reflexes give only a restricted set of responses, and that higher levels extend it4. Movement follows when descending proprioceptive predictions engage motor reflexes7. Allostasis is treated as a general feature of systems that resist the entropic forces of their environments8.
- Earliest held
- 1906, Sherrington, C. S.
- Most discussed in
- Conditioned Reflexes: An Investigation of the…, 1927
- In the library
- 162 passages in 20 works
- Rewritten
- 2026-10-20
Early reflex physiology
Sherrington (1906) tied visceral action to the muscular expression of emotion. He cited Goltz, who kept a dog for many months after its cerebral hemispheres were removed. The dog gave no sign of joy or pleasure with man or beast, though it did show anger or displeasure1. Sherrington noted that such observations cut the observer off from introspective help. Pavlov (1927) studied the cortex through conditioned stimuli. He reported that a positive conditioned stimulus which repeatedly goes unreinforced acquires inhibitory properties2. In his account, the corresponding cortical cells enter a state of inhibition.
Reflex arcs as prediction
Friston and colleagues (2012) described action as driven by proprioceptive prediction errors that carry their own gain, or precision. Suppressing those errors, they wrote, can be read in terms of classical motor reflex arcs3. Pio-Lopez and colleagues (2022) restated the point. Actions are realized by descending proprioceptive predictions that engage motor reflexes7. They added that sensory precision must be attenuated during action. Otherwise ascending prediction errors would revise the prediction instead of producing the movement7.
Conditioning and instrumental acts
Pezzulo, Rigoli and Friston (2015) set out how levels of a generative model work together. Innate reflexes give a basic repertoire, and sensory associations extend it. They argued that proprioceptive predictions let conditioned stimuli garner instrumental responses through classical motor reflexes4. They noted that pairing accounts of conditioning are limited, and cited Rescorla's proposal that conditioning rests on expectations about relations between events5. Abramson and Levin (2021) wrote that an instrumental response can be shown to be arbitrary if some property of it can be manipulated. To tell instrumental from operant behaviour, they pointed to a key question: whether the organism can show you it knows how to use the apparatus6.
Allostasis across scales
Fields and Levin (2022) described allostasis as a general feature of systems that resist the entropic forces of their environments long enough to be observed. They did not limit it to biology8. Pio-Lopez and colleagues (2023) used the definition of McEwen and Wingfield: stability maintained through change in stimuli and physiological mechanisms9. In their simulated tissue, cells evolved only to build a pattern also learned allostasis. The tissue remodelled itself, and when it drifted far from the target morphology, homeostatic mechanisms drove it back9.
Goltz observed a dog kept many months in that condition. It on no occasion gave any evidence of joy or pleasure in commerce either with man or beast.
Sherrington, C. S., 1906 · The Integrative Action of the Nervous System · open at passage 555when a positive conditioned stimulus repeatedly remains unreinforced, it acquires inhibitory properties
Pavlov, I. P., 1927 · Conditioned Reflexes: An Investigation of the Physiological Activity of the… · open at passage 549As noted above, the ensuing suppression of proprioceptive prediction errors can be thought of in terms of classical motor reflex arcs
Friston KJ, Shiner T, FitzGerald T, Galea JM, Adams R…, 2012 · Dopamine, affordance and active inference · open at passage 24incorporating proprioceptive predictions enables conditioned stimuli to garner instrumental responses through classical motor reflexes.
Pezzulo G, Rigoli F, Friston K, 2015 · Active Inference, homeostatic regulation and adaptive behavioural control · open at passage 34Rather, it has been proposed that conditioning depends on expectations based on knowledge of the relations between events at large (Rescorla, 1988).
Pezzulo G, Rigoli F, Friston K, 2015 · Active Inference, homeostatic regulation and adaptive behavioural control · open at passage 35An instrumental response can be shown to be arbitrary if some property of the response can be manipulated.
Abramson CI, Levin M, 2021 · Behaviorist approaches to investigating memory and learning: A primer for… · open at passage 19In active inference, actions are realized by descending proprioceptive predictions, which in turn engage motor reflexes that enact the intended or predicted movement
Pio-Lopez L, Kuchling F, Tung A, Pezzulo G, Levin M, 2022 · Active inference, morphogenesis, and computational psychiatry · open at passage 15Allostasis is, in other words, not limited to biology; it is a general characteristic of all systems that resist the entropic forces of their environments long enough to be observed at multiple times.
Fields C, Levin M, 2022 · Competency in Navigating Arbitrary Spaces as an Invariant for Analyzing… · open at passage 32allostasis is the process of maintaining stability (homeostasis) through change in both environmental stimuli and physiological mechanisms.
Pio-Lopez L, Bischof J, LaPalme JV, Levin M, 2023 · The scaling of goals from cellular to anatomical homeostasis: an evolutionary… · open at passage 56