The metabolic regulator: Why energy constraints imply generative models.

Authors

Hamidreza Jamalabadi, Tim Hahn

Published in

The Behavioral and brain sciences. Volume 49. Pages e464. Oct 02, 2026. Epub Oct 02, 2026.

Abstract

We argue that under minimal thermodynamic and control-theoretic assumptions, metabolic constraints imply generative cognition. We formalize cognition as a resource-bounded controller of probability flows, where metabolic budgets define path-space divergence constraints. This reframes inference as a physically instantiated process governed by metabolic regulation, implying that progress in the cognitive sciences requires grounding cognitive models in nonequilibrium thermodynamics and dynamical systems.

PMID:
42825752
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 02 Oct 2026.

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