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[CS.AI] When Does Feedback Help? Auditing Learned Voltage-Clamp Experimental Design

Published at: 2026-10-22 22:00 Last updated: 2026-10-25 13:04
#algorithm #Machine Learning #Artificial Intelligence

In this work the authors audit two synthetic voltage‑clamp tasks to test whether a learned scientific controller can outperform a misspecified planner without using feedback. The experiments employ a training‑selected fixed protocol, current masking, a Bayesian reference model and an excluded target. Five recurrent policies repeat the same fixed protocol across 1,200 off‑grid rollouts; masking the current does not alter any decision. In a crossed four‑hypothesis task a fixed diagnostic pulse is followed by a single learned choice. The policies then rely only on the first measured current, yet their performance ties that of a correctly specified Bayesian controller; a fitted threshold model reproduces the learned actions without being that controller. The excluded‑target prediction gain is $4.6991\times10^{-6}$ nats per sample. The authors emphasize that feedback usage and protocol quality are separate tests, and these cases do not establish biological discovery or general reinforcement‑learning superiority.

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Original Source: https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.27632

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