The purpose of this review was to integrate leading paradigms in psychology and neuroscience with a theory of the embodied, situated human brain, called the Hierarchically Mechanistic Mind (HMM). The HMM describes the brain as a complex adaptive system that functions to minimize the entropy of our sensory and physical states via action-perception cycles generated by hierarchical neural dynamics. First, we review the extant literature on the hierarchical structure of the brain. Next, we derive the HMM from a broader evolutionary systems theory that explains neural structure and function in terms of dynamic interactions across four nested levels of biological causation (i.e., adaptation, phylogeny, ontogeny, and mechanism). We then describe how the HMM aligns with a global brain theory in neuroscience called the free-energy principle, leveraging this theory to mathematically formulate neural dynamics across hierarchical spatiotemporal scales. We conclude by exploring the implications of the HMM for psychological inquiry.

中文翻译：

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层次机械思维：人类大脑、认知和行为的进化系统理论。

这篇综述的目的是将心理学和神经科学的领先范式与体现的、情境化的人类大脑理论（称为层次机械思维（HMM））相结合。HMM 将大脑描述为一个复杂的自适应系统，其功能是通过分层神经动力学生成的动作感知循环来最小化我们的感觉和物理状态的熵。首先，我们回顾一下关于大脑层次结构的现有文献。接下来，我们从更广泛的进化系统理论中推导出隐马尔可夫模型，该理论根据生物因果关系的四个嵌套层次（即适应、系统发育、个体发育和机制）的动态相互作用来解释神经结构和功能。然后，我们描述 HMM 如何与神经科学中称为自由能原理的全局大脑理论相结合，利用该理论以数学方式制定跨层次时空尺度的神经动力学。最后，我们探讨了隐马尔可夫模型（HMM）对心理探究的影响。