Cogprints

Gene Expression and its Discontents: Developmental disorders as dysfunctions of epigenetic cognition

Wallace, Rodrick (2009) Gene Expression and its Discontents: Developmental disorders as dysfunctions of epigenetic cognition. [Preprint]

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Abstract

Systems biology presently suffers the same mereological and sufficiency fallacies that haunt neural network models of high order cognition. Shifting perspective from the massively parallel space of gene matrix interactions to the grammar/syntax of the time series of expressed phenotypes using a cognitive paradigm permits import of techniques from statistical physics via the homology between information source uncertainty and free energy density. This produces a broad spectrum of possible statistical models of development and its pathologies in which epigenetic regulation and the effects of embedding environment are analogous to a tunable enzyme catalyst. A cognitive paradigm naturally incorporates memory, leading directly to models of epigenetic inheritance, as affected by environmental exposures, in the largest sense. Understanding gene expression, development, and their dysfunctions will require data analysis tools considerably more sophisticated than the present crop of simplistic models abducted from neural network studies or stochastic chemical reaction theory.

Item Type:Preprint
Keywords:developmental disorder, epigenetic cognition, gene expression, information theory, mereological fallacy, phase transition
Subjects:Biology > Theoretical Biology
Biology > Evolution
ID Code:6342
Deposited By: Wallace, Rodrick
Deposited On:13 Feb 2009 01:14
Last Modified:11 Mar 2011 08:57

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