PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Semir Zeki
AU  - Oliver Y. Chén
TI  - The Bayesian-Laplacian Brain
AID  - 10.1101/094516
DP  - 2016 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 094516
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2016/12/19/094516.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2016/12/19/094516.full
AB  - We discuss here what we feel could be an improvement in future discussions of the brain acting as a Bayesian-Laplacian system, by distinguishing between two classes of priors on which the brain's inferential systems operate. In one category are biological priors (β priors) and in the other artefactual ones (α priors). We argue that β priors are inherited or acquired very rapidly after birth and are much more resistant to varying experiences than α priors which, being continuously acquired at various stages throughout post-natal life, are much more accommodating of, and hospitable to, new experiences. Consequently, the posteriors generated from the two sets of priors are likewise different, being more constrained (i.e., precise) for β than for α priors.When, to silent sessions devoted to brain thought, We summon up formulations from endeavours past, And sigh the lack of many a principle that we sought, Because those principles were, in our mind, mis-cast, Lo, for all priors should not be tied in a single Bayesian knot For biological and artefactual priors each have a separate slotA (posterior) Bayesian-Laplacian adaptation from Shakespeare’s Sonnets