ArticleJournal of theoretical biology2020
On Markov blankets and hierarchical self-organisation.
Article in Journal of theoretical biology, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 47 papers.
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Who cites it
47 citing papers in PubMed.
- Differentiation of cortical areas: effects of free energy minimization with broken symmetry.Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) · 2026Article
- On the Death of a Self-Integrating Organism: A Reply to "A Biophilosophical Approach to the Determination of Brain Death".The Linacre quarterly · 2026Article
- Beyond representations: from active inference to active interference.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2026Article
- The Embodied Hijack: when Pleistocene minds meet disembodied artificial intelligence.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Oscillatory dynamics as the coordination layer of the organism: waves, Markov blankets, and the virtual space of cognition.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2026Article
- Sleep bruxism: a novel theoretical perspective through the lens of the free energy principle (FEP).Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2026Article
- Thoughtseeds: A Hierarchical and Agentic Framework for Investigating Thought Dynamics in Meditative States.Entropy (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- As One and Many: Relating Individual and Emergent Group-Level Generative Models in Active Inference.Entropy (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- How do inner screens enable imaginative experience? Applying the free-energy principle directly to the study of conscious experience.Neuroscience of consciousness · 2025Article
- The QBIT Theory of Consciousness: Information, Correlation, and Coherence.Integrative psychological & behavioral science · 2024Article
- Cortical development in the structural model and free energy minimization.Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) · 2024Article
- Active Inference in Psychology and Psychiatry: Progress to Date?Entropy (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- The Universal Optimism of the Self-Evidencing Mind.Entropy (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- The Human Affectome.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2024Review
- Article
- A functional contextual, observer-centric, quantum mechanical, and neuro-symbolic approach to solving the alignment problem of artificial general intelligence: safe AI through intersecting computational psychological neuroscience and LLM architecture for emergent theory of mind.Frontiers in computational neuroscience · 2024Article
- Federated inference and belief sharing.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2024Review
- A Variational Synthesis of Evolutionary and Developmental Dynamics.Entropy (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- The brain is not mental! coupling neuronal and immune cellular processing in human organisms.Frontiers in integrative neuroscience · 2023Article
- A scale-free universal relational information matrix (N-space) reconciles the information problem: N-space as the fabric of reality.Communicative & integrative biology · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Biological self-organisation can be regarded as a process of spontaneous pattern formation; namely, the emergence of structures that distinguish themselves from their environment. This process can occur at nested spatial scales: from the microscopic (e.g., the emergence of cells) to the macroscopic (e.g. the emergence of organisms). In this paper, we pursue the idea that Markov blankets - that separate the internal states of a structure from external states - can self-assemble at successively higher levels of organisation. Using simulations, based on the principle of variational free energy minimisation, we show that hierarchical self-organisation emerges when the microscopic elements of an ensemble have prior (e.g., genetic) beliefs that they participate in a macroscopic Markov blanket: i.e., they can only influence - or be influenced by - a subset of other elements. Furthermore, the emergent structures look very much like those found in nature (e.g., cells or organelles), when influences are mediated by short range signalling. These simulations are offered as a proof of concept that hierarchical self-organisation of Markov blankets (into Markov blankets) can explain the self-evidencing, autopoietic behaviour of biological systems.
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