Fig. 1
From: Coordinating multiple mental faculties during learning
The controller-peripheral architecture provides a general framework for how different brain regions coordinate while performing a task. (A) Peripherals aim to supply their controllers with the information they require while expending minimal resources (i.e., costly energy principle). Here, we illustrate a number of possible arrangements of controllers and peripherals. (ii) A single controller with multiple peripherals could offer an account of multi-modal integration for the convergence of visual and somatosensory signals in parietal cortex52 or semantic hubs in the anterior temporal lobe53. (iii) Conversely, multiple controllers with a single peripheral could model eye movements in which multiple controllers related to visual search, obstacle avoidance, social cognition, etc. share this perceptual resource. (iv) The controller and peripheral can share reciprocal connections, allowing each to serve both roles interchangeably. This arrangement may be particularly useful for modeling the interaction between the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and premotor cortex in movement execution and recalibration. Controllers and peripherals can be arranged hierarchically as in (v). This arrangement is consistent with hierarchical accounts of the ventral visual stream in object recognition. (B) We use the controller-peripheral architecture to develop a model that can learn concepts from a few visual examples. To simplify, we assume a single controller involving the hippocampus and ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and a single peripheral involving the ventral visual stream. The model captures how higher-level goals and outcomes shape activity throughout the ventral visual stream, which aims to provide its controller with needed information while minimizing resource expenditure (i.e., the costly energy principle).
