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Dynamical systems offer intriguing possibilities as a substrate for the generation of behavior because of their rich behavioral complexity. However this complexity together with the largely covert relation between the parameters and the behavior of the agent is also the main hindrance in the goal oriented design of a behavior system. This paper presents a general approach to the self-regulation of dynamical systems so that the design problem is circumvented. We consider the controller (a neural network) as the mediator for changes in the sensor values over time and define a dynamics for the parameters of the controller by maximizing the dynamical complexity of the sensorimotor loop under the condition that the consequences of the actions taken are still predictable. This very general principle is given a concrete mathematical formulation and is implemented in an extremely robust and versatile algorithm for the parameter dynamics of the controller. We consider two different applications, a mechanical device called the rocking stamper and the ODE simulations of a "snake" with five degrees of freedom. In these and many other examples studied we observed various behavior modes of high dynamical complexity.

This study investigated the possibility that male athletes who, owing to the rules of their sport, are pressured to maintain a low weight show an elevated prevalence of subclinical eating disorders. Twenty-five wrestlers and 59 rowers in the lower weight categories were investigated using the Eating Disorder Inventory (EDI). Fifty-two percent of the athletes reported the occurrence of binging. The EDI profiles of 11% of the athletes suggested the presence of a subclinical eating disorder. These figures are clearly elevated compared with the normal male population. Low-weight wrestlers and rowers should be considered a high-risk male population for subclinical eating disorders. These findings are comparable to high-risk groups consisting mainly of women (such as ballet and modelling students). The causal relationship between the specific sport and the development of a psychogenic eating disorder is discussed.

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