Seth, Anil 2013 TICS Interoception, Emotion, Embodied Self

Dec 18, 2013 06:41 PM

exclt paper: 2013 in Trends in Cog Sci.

by Anil Seth;  Opinion paper;

title: Interoceptive inference, emotion, and the embodied self

The  concept  of  the  brain  as  a  prediction  machine  has

enjoyed  a  resurgence  in  the  context  of  the  Bayesian  brain

and  predictive  coding  approaches  within  cognitive  science.

 To  date,  this  perspective  has  been  applied  primarily

  to  exteroceptive  perception  (e.g.,  vision,  audition),  and action.

Here,  I  describe  a  predictive,  inferential  perspective  on  interoception:  ‘interoceptive  inference’  conceives

of  subjective  feeling  states  (emotions)  as  arising  from

actively-inferred  generative  (predictive)  models  of  the

causes  of  interoceptive  afferents.  The  model  generalizes

‘appraisal’  theories  that  view  emotions  as  emerging

from  cognitive  evaluations  of  physiological  changes,

and  it  sheds  new  light  on  the  neurocognitive  mechanisms

that  underlie  the  experience  of  body  ownership

and  conscious  selfhood  in  health  and  in  neuropsychiatric

illness.

*

Predictive coding is a key concept  see def in Gloassry:

signals are repr by generative models.

PC is implemented by top-down signals conveying predictions and

the bottom-up signals convery prediction errors.

Selfhood.... the experience of being a distinct, holistic entity capable of

global self-control and attention,  possessing a body and a location in space and time.

Selfhood operates on multiple levels - from basic physio reps to metacognit and narrative aspects.

*

perceptual content is seen as resulting from probabilistic, knowledge driven inference

on the external causes of sensory signals.

herre, this is applied to INTEROCEPTION.

emphasis on the AIC = anter. INSULAR cortex.  as a comparator.

emotional content is gen. by active top-down inference of the causes of interoceptive signals

in a predictive coding context..

extends prev models of INSULAR cortex as supporting error-based learning of feeling states.

SELFHOOD  exper. of owning and identifying with a partic body, the mergence of

first-person perspective, intention and agency, and etacog aspects that relation to the

subjective 'I" and the narrative linking of episodic memories over time.

EBO Experience of body ownership:  my hand belongs to me; also

global sense of id... this body is MINE.

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