Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rcrh6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T03:16:44.708Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Thinking through prior bodies: autonomic uncertainty and interoceptive self-inference

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 May 2020

Micah Allen
Affiliation:
Center of Functionally Integrative Neuroscience, Aarhus University Hospital, 8000Aarhus, Denmark. [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] https://the-ecg.org/ Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies, Aarhus University, 8000Aarhus, Denmark Cambridge Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, CambridgeCB2 8AH, UK
Nicolas Legrand
Affiliation:
Center of Functionally Integrative Neuroscience, Aarhus University Hospital, 8000Aarhus, Denmark. [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] https://the-ecg.org/
Camile Maria Costa Correa
Affiliation:
Center of Functionally Integrative Neuroscience, Aarhus University Hospital, 8000Aarhus, Denmark. [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] https://the-ecg.org/
Francesca Fardo
Affiliation:
Center of Functionally Integrative Neuroscience, Aarhus University Hospital, 8000Aarhus, Denmark. [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] https://the-ecg.org/ Danish Pain Research Centre, Aarhus University Hospital, 8000Aarhus, Denmark

Abstract

The Bayesian brain hypothesis, as formalized by the free-energy principle, is ascendant in cognitive science. But, how does the Bayesian brain obtain prior beliefs? Veissière and colleagues argue that sociocultural interaction is one important source. We offer a complementary model in which “interoceptive self-inference” guides the estimation of expected uncertainty both in ourselves and in our social conspecifics.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ainley, V., Apps, M. A. J., Fotopoulou, A. & Tsakiris, M. (2016) “Bodily precision”: A predictive coding account of individual differences in interoceptive accuracy. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 371(1708):20160003. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2016.0003.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Allen, M. & Friston, K. J. (2018) From cognitivism to autopoiesis: Towards a computational framework for the embodied mind. Synthese 195(6):2459–82. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-016-1288-5.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Allen, M., Levy, A., Parr, T. & Friston, K. J. (2019) In the body's eye: The computational anatomy of interoceptive inference. BioRxiv 603928. https://doi.org/10.1101/603928.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Allen, M. & Tsakiris, M. (2019) The body as first prior: Interoceptive predictive processing and the primacy. In The interoceptive mind: From homeostasis to awareness, 1st Edition, pp. 2745. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Apps, M. A. & Tsakiris, M. (2014) The free-energy self: A predictive coding account of self-recognition. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews 41:8597.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Barrett, L. F. & Simmons, W. K. (2015) Interoceptive predictions in the brain. Nature Reviews Neuroscience 16(7):419–29. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn3950.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bruineberg, J., Kiverstein, J. & Rietveld, E. (2018a) The anticipating brain is not a scientist: The free-energy principle from an ecological-enactive perspective. Synthese 195(6):2417–44. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-016-1239-1.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bruineberg, J., Rietveld, E., Parr, T., van Maanen, L. & Friston, K. J. (2018b) Free-energy minimization in joint agent-environment systems: A niche construction perspective. Journal of Theoretical Biology 455:161–78. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtbi.2018.07.002.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chanes, L. & Barrett, L. F. (2016) Redefining the role of limbic areas in cortical processing. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 20(2):96106. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2015.11.005.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Friston, K. J. & Frith, C. D. (2015a) A duet for one. Consciousness and Cognition 36:390405. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2014.12.003.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Friston, K. J. & Frith, C. D. (2015b) Active inference, communication and hermeneutics. Cortex 68:129–43. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2015.03.025.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gallagher, S. & Allen, M. (2018) Active inference, enactivism and the hermeneutics of social cognition. Synthese 195(6):2627–48. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-016-1269-8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lawson, R. P., Mathys, C. & Rees, G. (2017) Adults with autism overestimate the volatility of the sensory environment. Nature Neuroscience 20(9):1293–99. https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.4615.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Limanowski, J. & Blankenburg, F. (2013) Minimal self-models and the free energy principle. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 7:547. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2013.00547.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Parr, T. & Friston, K. J. (2017a) Uncertainty, epistemics and active inference. Journal of the Royal Society Interface 14(136):20170376. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsif.2017.0376.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Petzschner, F. H., Weber, L. A. E., Gard, T. & Stephan, K. E. (2017) Computational psychosomatics and computational psychiatry: Toward a joint framework for differential diagnosis. Biological Psychiatry 82(6):421–30. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2017.05.012.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Powers, A. R., Mathys, C. & Corlett, P. R. (2017) Pavlovian conditioning-induced hallucinations result from overweighting of perceptual priors. Science 357(6351):596600. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aan3458.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pulcu, E. & Browning, M. (2019) The misestimation of uncertainty in affective disorders. Trends in Cognitive Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2019.07.007.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ramstead, M. J. D., Kirchhoff, M. D., Constant, A. & Friston, K. J. (2019b) Multiscale integration: Beyond internalism and externalism. Synthese 130. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-019-02115-x.Google Scholar
Ramstead, M. J. D., Kirchhoff, M. D. & Friston, K. J. (2019c) A tale of two densities: Active inference is enactive inference. Adaptive Behavior 36(03):181204, 1059712319862774. https://doi.org/10.1177/1059712319862774.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Seth, A. K. (2013) Interoceptive inference, emotion, and the embodied self. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 17(11):565–73. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2013.09.007.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Seth, A. K. & Tsakiris, M. (2018) Being a beast machine: The somatic basis of selfhood. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 22(11):969–81. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2018.08.008.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed