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Main Authors: Topcular, Baris, Turkmen, Cigdem
Format: Recurso digital
Language:English
Published: Zenodo 2025
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18088521
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author Topcular, Baris
Turkmen, Cigdem
author_facet Topcular, Baris
Turkmen, Cigdem
contents <p>This paper re-evaluates the traditional dualism of top-down and bottom-up cognitive processing through the formal lens of Complex Systems Science. Rather than viewing these as linear, opposing pathways, this framework treats the mind/brain as a multi-scale hierarchical system characterized by bidirectional feedback loops and emergence.</p> <p>We explore how "bottom-up" sensory integration gives rise to higher-order cognitive states and how these states, in turn, exert downward causation to constrain lower-level neural activity. By applying concepts such as phase transitions, self-organized criticality, and non-linear dynamics, the article provides a robust mathematical and theoretical foundation for understanding how the brain balances environmental reactivity with internal goal-directed stability.</p> <p>This approach offers new insights into the "stability-plasticity" dilemma and aligns with contemporary theories in Active Inference and Synergetics, suggesting that cognitive "top-down" control is an emergent property of the system's drive to minimize global entropy.</p>
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institution Zenodo
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publishDate 2025
publisher Zenodo
record_format zenodo
spellingShingle Beyond Top-Down and Bottom-Up- Cognition as Context-Dependent Emergence in a Complex Adaptive Brain
Topcular, Baris
Turkmen, Cigdem
<p>This paper re-evaluates the traditional dualism of top-down and bottom-up cognitive processing through the formal lens of Complex Systems Science. Rather than viewing these as linear, opposing pathways, this framework treats the mind/brain as a multi-scale hierarchical system characterized by bidirectional feedback loops and emergence.</p> <p>We explore how "bottom-up" sensory integration gives rise to higher-order cognitive states and how these states, in turn, exert downward causation to constrain lower-level neural activity. By applying concepts such as phase transitions, self-organized criticality, and non-linear dynamics, the article provides a robust mathematical and theoretical foundation for understanding how the brain balances environmental reactivity with internal goal-directed stability.</p> <p>This approach offers new insights into the "stability-plasticity" dilemma and aligns with contemporary theories in Active Inference and Synergetics, suggesting that cognitive "top-down" control is an emergent property of the system's drive to minimize global entropy.</p>
title Beyond Top-Down and Bottom-Up- Cognition as Context-Dependent Emergence in a Complex Adaptive Brain
url https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18088521