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Scalable Machines with Intrinsic Higher Mental-State Dynamics

arXiv cs.LG / 3/17/2026

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Key Points

  • The paper proposes a mathematically grounded Transformer formulation that uses triadic modulation loops among queries (Q), keys (K), and values (V) to pre-select relevant information before attention, drawing on cellular neurobiology and mental-state dynamics.
  • It claims approximately O(N) complexity with respect to the number of input tokens and reports scalability benefits such as using fewer heads, layers, and tokens.
  • Scalable experiments on ImageNet-1K show faster learning and reduced computational demand compared with a standard Vision Transformer (ViT) baseline.
  • By bridging neuroscience and AI model design, the work suggests principles for implementing higher mental-state dynamics in scalable models and informs future architecture research.

Abstract

Drawing on recent breakthroughs in cellular neurobiology and detailed biophysical modeling linking neocortical pyramidal neurons to distinct mental-state regimes, this work introduces a mathematically grounded formulation showing how models (e.g., Transformers) can implement computational principles underlying awake imaginative thought to pre-select relevant information before attention is applied via triadic modulation loops among queries (Q), keys (K), and values (V).~Scalability experiments on ImageNet-1K, benchmarked against a standard Vision Transformer (ViT), demonstrate significantly faster learning with reduced computational demand (fewer heads, layers, and tokens), consistent with our prior findings in reinforcement learning and language modeling. The approach operates at approximately \mathcal{O}(N) complexity with respect to the number of input tokens N.