ReviewJournal of the Royal Society, Interface2016
Top-down models in biology: explanation and control of complex living systems above the molecular level.
Review in Journal of the Royal Society, Interface, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 84 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
84 citing papers in PubMed.
- Balance Between Order and Disorder: Quantum-Epigenetic Pathways for the Emergence and Continuous Evolution of Life.Acta biotheoretica · 2026Review
- Spark or Sound: How Two Differing Explanatory Strategies Impact the Debate on the Physical Nature of Neuronal Excitability.Membranes · 2026Article
- Heuristically Adaptive Diffusion-Model Evolutionary Strategy.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026Article
- Reversal of Endogenous Bioelectrical Network Collapse in Advanced Childhood Cerebral X-Linked Adrenoleukodystrophy.Neurology international · 2026Article
- Mind Everywhere: A Framework for Conceptualizing Goal-Directedness in Biology and Other Domains-Part Two.Biological theory · 2026Article
- Mind Everywhere: A Framework for Conceptualizing Goal-Directedness in Biology and Other Domains-Part One.Biological theory · 2026Article
- Combinatorial (bio-geo-temporal) and non-combinatorial analysis of the COVID-19 dissemination that affected Georgia (the country) in 2021.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- How causal is "circular causality"?Frontiers in network physiology · 2026Article
- De-anthropomorphizing the mind: life as a cognitive spectrum in a unified framework for biological minds.Frontiers in systems neuroscience · 2026Article
- Top-down perspectives on cell membrane potential and protein transcription.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Aging as a Loss of Goal-Directedness: An Evolutionary Simulation and Analysis Unifying Regeneration with Anatomical Rejuvenation.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2025Article
- Searching for physical principles of morphogenesis.Development (Cambridge, England) · 2025Review
- Discovering sensorimotor agency in cellular automata using diversity search.Science advances · 2025Article
- Top-Down Coercive Mechanisms and the Major Transitions in Evolution.BioEssays : news and reviews in molecular, cellular and developmental biology · 2025Review
- Harnessing the analog computing power of regulatory networks with the Regulatory Network Machine.iScience · 2025Article
- The Multiscale Wisdom of the Body: Collective Intelligence as a Tractable Interface for Next-Generation Biomedicine.BioEssays : news and reviews in molecular, cellular and developmental biology · 2025Review
- AI-driven automated discovery tools reveal diverse behavioral competencies of biological networks.eLife · 2025Article
- Identification of brain-like complex information architectures in embryonic tissue ofCommunicative & integrative biology · 2025Article
- On Emergence of Spontaneous Oscillations in Kombucha and Proteinoids.BioNanoScience · 2025Review
- Stress sharing as cognitive glue for collective intelligences: A computational model of stress as a coordinator for morphogenesis.Biochemical and biophysical research communications · 2024Article
24 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
It is widely assumed in developmental biology and bioengineering that optimal understanding and control of complex living systems follows from models of molecular events. The success of reductionism has overshadowed attempts at top-down models and control policies in biological systems. However, other fields, including physics, engineering and neuroscience, have successfully used the explanations and models at higher levels of organization, including least-action principles in physics and control-theoretic models in computational neuroscience. Exploiting the dynamic regulation of pattern formation in embryogenesis and regeneration requires new approaches to understand how cells cooperate towards large-scale anatomical goal states. Here, we argue that top-down models of pattern homeostasis serve as proof of principle for extending the current paradigm beyond emergence and molecule-level rules. We define top-down control in a biological context, discuss the examples of how cognitive neuroscience and physics exploit these strategies, and illustrate areas in which they may offer significant advantages as complements to the mainstream paradigm. By targeting system controls at multiple levels of organization and demystifying goal-directed (cybernetic) processes, top-down strategies represent a roadmap for using the deep insights of other fields for transformative advances in regenerative medicine and systems bioengineering.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.