Irreversibility and collapsibility of predictive systems in mental representation : a sensorimotor paradox theory

In this article, we will discuss the idea that one system cannot be both the observer and the agent of motor action at the same time. In that sense, the model of sensory prediction is somewhat biased, as it would suggest that a system would be able to observe its own action from a fixed viewpoint. We will argue that on a perceptual level, efferent and afferent signals cannot coexist simultaneously, at least as far as the point of the body leading the action is concerned. Triggering motor action activates available sensorimotor memory which a system adheres to completely. This adherence constitutes a weight that we will try to evaluate. Electrochemical reactions that neurally generate it are irreversible and once triggered can only achieve their course and collapse. The ability for a system to sustain electrochemical collapse and dynamic reinitiation onto network relays will be conceptualized as a system's collapsibility. This means that triggering motor action engages a whole system beyond its initial stance. As memory-based efferent signal is electrochemically limited in duration, its phasing with ongoing action is also limited. Beyond that limit, sensory adherence has to switch to availability to peripheral multi-sensory and somatosensory inputs registered dynamically around the motor lead that is phased with triggered memory. The dephasing of sensory peripheral afference and the imperative for a system to prevent bodily harm take over the gap between efferent impulse and sensorimotor control. In-between them lies a precarious state where sensorimotor control is unstable and relatively unpredictable. Inspecting the theory of the sensorimotor paradox on the origins of mind and language, we will see how this gap could have been instrumentalized when it comes to retaining motor expression and autonomizing efferent memory impulses into mental representations. We will try to provide a first formulation of the coefficient of collapsibility from a biophysical perspective, which could serve as a basis for further elaborations.