To do things with words (only): An introduction to the role of noise in coordination dynamics without equations

Uncertainty, spatial or temporal errors, variability, are classic themes in the study of human and animal behaviors. Several theoretical approaches 1 and concepts have been adopted to tackle those issues, often considering the CNS as an observer, using Shannon information and entropy, signal to noise ratio, and recently a Bayesian approach, and free energy minimization. In the coordination dynamics framework, addressing pattern formation processes underlying cognitive functions, and goal directed human movement among others, the tools employed originate from the statistical physics of Brownian motion and stochastic processes. The relations between those theories/ concepts have been drawn for some cases in their original fields, for example between free energy minimization and diffusion model in a force field (Jordan et al., 1998). Here an introductory presentation of the approach of “noise” in coordination dynamics is proposed, aimed at the experimentalist.