Curiosity shapes brain-like architectures and functions
Poli, F.; Fakhar, K.; Mousley, A.; Klein, C.; Grosse Wiesmann, C.; Astle, D.
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How does complex cognition emerge from simpler underlying processes? We show that two components are sufficient: infant-like curiosity and brain-like biophysical constraints jointly drive the emergence of complex neuronal architectures and cognitive abilities. We first tested curiosity-driven exploration in 275 8- to 15-month-old infants. We then implemented these mechanisms in artificial recurrent neural networks, letting them actively sample 20 cognitive tasks during training, while forcing the networks to operate under brain-like biophysical constraints. These two components were sufficient for a range of biological and cognitive phenomena to emerge: The resulting networks captured human synaptic development, the adult brain's architecture, and displayed compositional generalisation, a hallmark of human cognition. Curiosity, long viewed as a downstream consequence of complex brains, is also a driver of their complexity.
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