# Turing's cascade instability supports the coordination of the mind, brain, and behavior

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2204.07904 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.07904/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 10 of its 276 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 17 Apr 2022.

## Builds on (most cited first, 10 of 10)

- [Generative models as parsimonious descriptions of sensorimotor loops](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1904.12937/) (2019)
- [Criticality in the brain: A synthesis of neurobiology, models and cognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1707.05952/) (2017)
- [Power-law statistics and universal scaling in the absence of criticality](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1503.08033/) (2015)
- [Parcels and particles: Markov blankets in the brain](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.09704/) (2020)
- [Neural Avalanches at the Critical Point between Replay and Non-Replay of Spatiotemporal Patterns](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1310.2024/) (2013)
- [Quasi-Critical Brain Dynamics on a Non-Equilibrium Widom Line](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1405.6232/) (2014)
- [Identification of criticality in neuronal avalanches: II. A theoretical and empirical investigation of the driven case](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1309.3535/) (2013)
- [Balance of excitation and inhibition determines 1/f power spectrum in neuronal networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1708.09042/) (2017)
- [Heterogeneity of Synaptic Input Connectivity Regulates Spike-based Neuronal Avalanches](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1803.06180/) (2018)
- [Critical neuronal models with relaxed timescales separation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1808.04196/) (2018)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Turing inspired a computer metaphor of the mind and brain that has been handy and has spawned decades of empirical investigation, but he did much more and offered behavioral and cognitive sciences another metaphor--that of the cascade. The time has come to confront Turing's cascading instability, which suggests a geometrical framework driven by power laws and can be studied using multifractal formalism and multiscale probability density function analysis. Here, we review a rapidly growing body of scientific investigations revealing signatures of cascade instability and their consequences for a perceiving, acting, and thinking organism. We review work related to executive functioning (planning to act), postural control (bodily poise for turning plans into action), and effortful perception (action to gather information in a single modality and action to blend multimodal information). We also review findings on neuronal avalanches in the brain, specifically about neural participation in body-wide cascades. Turing's cascade instability blends the mind, brain, and behavior across space and time scales and provides an alternative to the dominant computer metaphor.