Curiosity shapes brain-like architectures and functions
Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: 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.
Language: English
Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7167284638