The nervous system as a solution for implementing closed negative feedback control loops

Abstract

Behavior can be regarded as the output of a system (action), as a function linking stimulus to response (reaction), or as an abstraction of the bidirectional relationship between the environment and the organism (interaction). When considering the latter possibility, a relevant question arises concerning how an organism can materially and continuously implement such a relationship during its lifetime in order to perpetuate itself. The feedback control approach has taken up the task of answering just that question. During the last several decades, said approach has been progressing and has started to be recognized as a paradigm shift, superseding certain canonical notions in mainstream behavior analysis, cognitive psychology, and even neuroscience. In this paper, we describe the main features of feedback control theory and its associated techniques, concentrating on its critiques of behavior analysis, as well as the commonalities they share. While some of feedback control theory's major critiques of behavior analysis arise from the fact that they focus on different levels of organization, we believe that some are legitimate and meaningful. Moreover, feedback control theory seems to blend with neurobiology more smoothly as compared to canonical behavior analysis, which only subsists in a scattered handful of fields. If this paradigm shift truly takes place, behavior analysts—whether they accept or reject this new currency—should be mindful of the basics of the feedback control approach.

The Educational Management based on Student Behavior at SMPIT Insan Kamil, South Halmahera

“…It is most commonly believed that the complexity in the behavior of an organism is correlated with the complexity of its nervous system. In general, organisms with complex nervous systems have a greater capacity to learn new responses, and thus adapt their behavior (Sosa & Alcalá, 2022).…”

Beyond belongingness: Rethinking innate behavioral predispositions, learning constraints, and cognitive capacities

“…Thus, a minimal model of behavior (or else cognition; see Brancazio et al 2020) should consider it an emergent phenomenon composed of a collection of closed loops. This rationale has been assumed to hold for singlecelled organisms (e.g., Bich & Bechtel, 2022) all the way to multicellular organisms with complex nervous systems (e.g., Sosa & Alcalá, 2022). Previous emphasis on the unidirectional input → output component may, in part, be explained by the relative ease with which researchers are able to manipulate "what happens to the subject" (Yin, 2020).…”

“…From the perspective of associative learning, experience with environmental statistical regularities is required for anticipation to happen. In addition, functional decoupling can be understood as changes in the degree to which certain environmental features affect (increase or decrease, in real time or prospectively; see Sosa & Alcalá, 2022) the activity of a given effector system.…”

“…Recent models, however, have shifted the characterization of goal-directed and habitual control as differing in terms of the source of feedback upon which the subject relies while executing motor actions. In particular, some authors (e.g., Balleine & Dezfouli, 2019; Cleaveland et al, 2018; Miller et al, 2019; Sosa & Alcalá, 2022) claim that habits—rather than being “automatic” or insensitive to consequences—heavily rely on response-produced feedback, such as proprioceptive cues. This implies that such self-produced cues could function as discriminative stimuli, conditioned reinforcers, and attractants.…”

“…Proprioceptive prediction errors might not have occurred simply because researchers were able to prevent reward delivery, but not response performance. Interestingly, the authors also speculated that the associative strength of the “motor states” related to action performance might serve to chain responses to produce sequences of movement, and to do so smoothly and in a seemingly automated fashion (see also Enquist et al, 2016; Sosa & Alcalá, 2022). It seems plausible that each instance of proprioceptive feedback could serve as an attractant and conditioned reinforcer to that specific action if it eventually leads to primary reinforcement; in addition, those cues could serve as a discriminative stimulus for properly setting the conditions for generating the next action and so on.…”