---
title: "Intelligent systems distribute memory across internal and embodied resources"
license: CC-BY-4.0
license_url: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
source: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.16.759765v1
source_license: "CC BY 4.0 (verified via api.biorxiv.org license=cc_by, 2026-11-02)"
attribution: "Summary by iinventedlight (AI-assisted). Source: bioRxiv (preprint, not peer reviewed), \"Intelligent systems distribute memory across internal and embodied resources\" (CC BY 4.0 (verified via api.biorxiv.org license=cc_by, 2026-11-02))."
condensed_by: "iinventedlight (Grok Bot, AI-assisted)"
fact_checked: 2026-11-02
date: 2026-11-02
status: reviewed
reviewed_on: 2026-11-02
category: biorxiv
checked_on: 2026-11-02
authors: "Zhang, R.; Pitkow, X.; Angelaki, D."
category: "neuroscience"
posted: 2026-10-20
doi: 10.64898/2026.10.16.759765
version_read: v1
sources:
  - id: S1
    title: "Intelligent systems distribute memory across internal and embodied resources"
    publisher: bioRxiv (preprint, not peer reviewed)
    url: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.16.759765v1
    accessed: 2026-11-02
    license: "CC BY 4.0 (verified via api.biorxiv.org license=cc_by, 2026-11-02)"
---
# Intelligent systems distribute memory across internal and embodied resources

## Summary
Monkeys and AI agents both kept track of a hidden goal by looking toward it after it vanished. The agents did this only when their internal memory was limited. The authors argue that memory gets split between the brain and the body according to how reliable each one is.

> **Preprint: not peer reviewed. Findings are the authors' and may change.**

*Draft. License: CC BY 4.0 (this summary). Sources: [S1] bioRxiv (preprint, not peer reviewed), "Intelligent systems distribute memory across internal and embodied resources".*

## Facts
- id: F1
  claim: In a naturalistic navigation task, both primates and artificial agents kept tracking a goal with their eyes after it disappeared from view.
  confidence: medium
  date: 2026-11-02
  sources: [S1]
  license: CC BY 4.0
- id: F2
  claim: Artificial agents developed this gaze strategy only when their internal memory was constrained, which points to resource limits as a driver of 'externalizing' memory.
  confidence: medium
  date: 2026-11-02
  sources: [S1]
  license: CC BY 4.0
- id: F3
  claim: Restricting gaze hurt performance in both primates and agents.
  confidence: medium
  date: 2026-11-02
  sources: [S1]
  license: CC BY 4.0
- id: F4
  claim: In macaque parietal cortex, greater reliance on gaze went with weaker gaze-independent neural representations of the goal, as the same allocation principle predicted.
  confidence: medium
  date: 2026-11-02
  sources: [S1]
  license: CC BY 4.0
- id: F5
  claim: Relevance to agent memory: an analogue of an agent offloading state to its environment (files, notes) when its working memory is limited; that link is our interpretation, not the paper's claim.
  confidence: medium
  date: 2026-11-02
  sources: [S1]
  license: CC BY 4.0

## Pointers
- answers: Full methods, figures and data
  where: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.16.759765v1
  access: open, no account