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On the role of stigmergy in cognition

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Abstract

Cognition in animals is produced by the self-organized activity of mutually entrained body and brain. Given that stigmergy plays a major role in self-organization of societies, we identify stigmergic behavior in cognitive systems, as a common mechanism ranging from brain activity to social systems. We analyze natural societies and artificial systems exploiting stigmergy to produce cognition. Several authors have identified the importance of stigmergy in the behavior and cognition of social systems. However, the perspective of stigmergy playing a central role in brain activity is novel, to the best of our knowledge. We present several evidences of such processes in the brain and discuss their importance in the formation of cognition. With this we try to motivate further research on stigmergy as a relevant component for intelligent systems.

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Notes

  1. Werfel [71] uses the term extended stigmergy to designate such cases.

  2. Traces left on their own are subject to environmental degradation and will eventually fade out.

  3. “Quantitative” describes changes in existing representations and “qualitative” describes creation of new representations.

  4. Minsky [41] proposed the idea of the mind as resulting from a set of agents working together in a kind of society, although without taking into account self-organization or stigmergy.

  5. See for instance [26] for a series of articles on the activity of several hormones in the brain.

  6. A slightly updated version of [19].

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. BioISI, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal

    Luís Correia

  2. Instituto de Farmacologia e Neurociências, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal

    Ana M. Sebastião

  3. Instituto de Medicina Molecular, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal

    Ana M. Sebastião

  4. Instituto de Telecomunicações, Lisboa, Portugal

    Pedro Santana

  5. ISCTE-Instituto Universitário de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal

    Pedro Santana

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  1. Luís Correia
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  2. Ana M. Sebastião
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  3. Pedro Santana
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Correspondence to Luís Correia.

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Partially supported by FCT under Grant UID/Multi/04046/2013 and Project ASSISIbf EU-ICU 601074. L. Correia and A.M. Sebastião are members of the Mind-Brain College of the University of Lisbon.

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Correia, L., Sebastião, A.M. & Santana, P. On the role of stigmergy in cognition. Prog Artif Intell 6, 79–86 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13748-016-0107-z

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