How Morphological Computation shapes Integrated Information in Embodied Agents

TL;DR

This paper explores how morphological computation and integrated information interact in embodied agents, revealing an antagonistic relationship where increased morphological computation reduces the need for brain-based information integration.

Contribution

It combines methods to analyze information flows among body, brain, and environment, linking morphological computation with integrated information in goal-directed agents.

Findings

Morphological computation and integrated information are inversely related.

Optimal policies can be used to measure information flows in embodied agents.

Changing morphological conditions affect the balance between morphological computation and brain integration.

Abstract

The Integrated Information Theory provides a quantitative approach to consciousness and can be applied to neural networks. An embodied agent controlled by such a network influences and is being influenced by its environment. This involves, on the one hand, morphological computation within goal directed action and, on the other hand, integrated information within the controller, the agent's brain. In this article, we combine different methods in order to examine the information flows among and within the body, the brain and the environment of an agent. This allows us to relate various information flows to each other. We test this framework in a simple experimental setup. There, we calculate the optimal policy for goal-directed behavior based on the "planning as inference" method, in which the information-geometric em-algorithm is used to optimize the likelihood of the goal. Morphological computation and integrated information are then calculated with respect to the optimal policies. Comparing the dynamics of these measures under changing morphological circumstances highlights the antagonistic relationship between these two concepts. The more morphological computation is involved, the less information integration within the brain is required. In order to determine the influence of the brain on the behavior of the agent it is necessary to additionally measure the information flow to and from the brain.