Evidence map›Paper›PMID 37213925›Full record

ArticleInterface focus2023

On Bayesian mechanics: a physics of and by beliefs.

Maxwell J D Ramstead, Dalton A R Sakthivadivel, Conor Heins, Magnus Koudahl, Beren Millidge, Lancelot Da Costa, Brennan Klein, Karl J Friston

Open access · hybridAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Interface focus, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 36 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
36citing papers in PubMed
17.4field-weighted citation impact, top 1% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

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.

2 · The registry

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.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

36 citing papers in PubMed, 109 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Article
  2. Article
  3. Article
  4. Article
  5. Review
  6. The myth of the Bayesian brain.European journal of applied physiology · 2025
    Review
  7. Article
  8. Review
  9. Article
  10. Flow and intuition: a systems neuroscience comparison.Neuroscience of consciousness · 2025
    Article
  11. From pixels to planning: scale-free active inference.Frontiers in network physiology · 2025
    Article
  12. Article
  13. An entropic explanation of insistence on sameness in autism.Frontiers in computational neuroscience · 2025
    Article
  14. Article
  15. An Active-Inference Approach to Second-Person Neuroscience.Perspectives on psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science · 2024
    Review
  16. Article
  17. Review
  18. Article
  19. Article
  20. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

8 authors at 5 institutions in 4 countries.

Maxwell J D RamsteadVERSES Research Lab, Los Angeles, CA 90016, USA.
Dalton A R SakthivadivelVERSES Research Lab, Los Angeles, CA 90016, USA.ORCID 0000-0002-7907-7611
Conor HeinsVERSES Research Lab, Los Angeles, CA 90016, USA.
Magnus KoudahlVERSES Research Lab, Los Angeles, CA 90016, USA.
Beren MillidgeVERSES Research Lab, Los Angeles, CA 90016, USA.
Lancelot Da CostaWellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, University College London, London WC1N 3AR, UK.ORCID 0000-0003-0126-4588
Brennan KleinVERSES Research Lab, Los Angeles, CA 90016, USA.
Karl J FristonVERSES Research Lab, Los Angeles, CA 90016, USA.ORCID 0000-0001-7984-8909
Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging · GBVERSES (United States)Northeastern University · USUniversity of Konstanz · DEUniversity of Oxford · GB

Funding

Wellcome Trust 205103/Z/16/Z
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to introduce a field of study that has emerged over the last decade, called Bayesian mechanics. Bayesian mechanics is a probabilistic mechanics, comprising tools that enable us to model systems endowed with a particular partition (i.e. into particles), where the internal states (or the trajectories of internal states) of a particular system encode the parameters of beliefs about external states (or their trajectories). These tools allow us to write down mechanical theories for systems that look as if they are estimating posterior probability distributions over the causes of their sensory states. This provides a formal language for modelling the constraints, forces, potentials and other quantities determining the dynamics of such systems, especially as they entail dynamics on a space of beliefs (i.e. on a statistical manifold). Here, we will review the state of the art in the literature on the free energy principle, distinguishing between three ways in which Bayesian mechanics has been applied to particular systems (i.e. path-tracking, mode-tracking and mode-matching). We go on to examine a duality between the free energy principle and the constrained maximum entropy principle, both of which lie at the heart of Bayesian mechanics, and discuss its implications.

Indexed as

active inferenceBayesian mechanicsfree energy principlegauge theoryinformation geometrymaximum entropy

Identifiers

PMID37213925
PMCPMC10198254
OpenAlexW4365515296

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

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.