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Parvizi-Wayne D, Severs L. When the interoceptive and conceptual clash: The case of oppositional phenomenal self-modelling in Tourette syndrome. COGNITIVE, AFFECTIVE & BEHAVIORAL NEUROSCIENCE 2024; 24:660-680. [PMID: 38777988 PMCID: PMC11233343 DOI: 10.3758/s13415-024-01189-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 04/15/2024] [Indexed: 05/25/2024]
Abstract
Tourette syndrome (TS) has been associated with a rich set of symptoms that are said to be uncomfortable, unwilled, and effortful to manage. Furthermore, tics, the canonical characteristic of TS, are multifaceted, and their onset and maintenance is complex. A formal account that integrates these features of TS symptomatology within a plausible theoretical framework is currently absent from the field. In this paper, we assess the explanatory power of hierarchical generative modelling in accounting for TS symptomatology from the perspective of active inference. We propose a fourfold analysis of sensory, motor, and cognitive phenomena associated with TS. In Section 1, we characterise tics as a form of action aimed at sensory attenuation. In Section 2, we introduce the notion of epistemic ticcing and describe such behaviour as the search for evidence that there is an agent (i.e., self) at the heart of the generative hierarchy. In Section 3, we characterise both epistemic (sensation-free) and nonepistemic (sensational) tics as habitual behaviour. Finally, in Section 4, we propose that ticcing behaviour involves an inevitable conflict between distinguishable aspects of selfhood; namely, between the minimal phenomenal sense of self-which is putatively underwritten by interoceptive inference-and the explicit preferences that constitute the individual's conceptual sense of self. In sum, we aim to provide an empirically informed analysis of TS symptomatology under active inference, revealing a continuity between covert and overt features of the condition.
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Affiliation(s)
- D Parvizi-Wayne
- Department of Psychology, Royal Holloway University of London, London, UK.
| | - L Severs
- Centre for the Philosophy of Science, Faculty of Sciences, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal
- Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Institute of Philosophy II, Bochum, Germany
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2
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Putica A, Agathos J. Reconceptualizing complex posttraumatic stress disorder: A predictive processing framework for mechanisms and intervention. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2024; 164:105836. [PMID: 39084584 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2024.105836] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/26/2024] [Revised: 07/24/2024] [Accepted: 07/29/2024] [Indexed: 08/02/2024]
Abstract
In this article, we introduce a framework for interpreting Complex Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (C-PTSD) through predictive processing, a neuroscience concept explaining the brain's interpretation and prediction of sensory information. While closely related to PTSD, C-PTSD encompasses additional symptom clusters marked by disturbances in self-organization (DSO), such as negative self-concept, affect dysregulation, and relational difficulties, typically resulting from prolonged traumatic stressors. Our model leverages advances in computational psychiatry and neuroscience, offering a mechanistic explanation for these symptoms by illustrating how prolonged trauma disrupts the brain's predictive processing. Specifically, altered predictive mechanisms contribute to C-PTSD's symptomatology, focusing on DSO: (1) Negative self-concept emerges from maladaptive priors that bias perception towards self-criticism, misaligning expected and actual interoceptive states; (2) Misalignment between predicted and actual interoceptive signals leads to affect dysregulation, with sensitivity to bodily cues; and (3) Relationship challenges arise from skewed social prediction errors, fostering mistrust and withdrawal. This precision-focused approach sheds light on the dynamics underpinning C-PTSD and highlights potential intervention targets aimed at recalibrating the predictive processing system.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrea Putica
- School of Psychology and Public Health, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Victoria, Australia.
| | - James Agathos
- Department of Psychiatry, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
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3
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Godfrey-Smith P. Inferring Consciousness in Phylogenetically Distant Organisms. J Cogn Neurosci 2024; 36:1660-1666. [PMID: 38579258 DOI: 10.1162/jocn_a_02158] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 04/07/2024]
Abstract
The neural dynamics of subjectivity (NDS) approach to the biological explanation of consciousness is outlined and applied to the problem of inferring consciousness in animals phylogenetically distant from ourselves. The NDS approach holds that consciousness or felt experience is characteristic of systems whose nervous systems have been shaped to realize subjectivity through a combination of network interactions and large-scale dynamic patterns. Features of the vertebrate brain architecture that figure in other accounts of the biology of consciousness are viewed as inessential. Deep phylogenetic branchings in the animal kingdom occurred before the evolution of complex behavior, cognition, and sensing. These capacities arose independently in brain architectures that differ widely across arthropods, vertebrates, and cephalopods, but with conservation of large-scale dynamic patterns of a kind that have an apparent link to felt experience in humans. An evolutionary perspective also motivates a strongly gradualist view of consciousness; a simple distinction between conscious and nonconscious animals will probably be replaced with a view that admits differences of degree, perhaps on many dimensions.
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4
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Verdonk C, Teed AR, White EJ, Ren X, Stewart JL, Paulus MP, Khalsa SS. Heartbeat-evoked neural response abnormalities in generalized anxiety disorder during peripheral adrenergic stimulation. Neuropsychopharmacology 2024; 49:1246-1254. [PMID: 38291167 PMCID: PMC11224228 DOI: 10.1038/s41386-024-01806-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/08/2023] [Revised: 12/22/2023] [Accepted: 01/16/2024] [Indexed: 02/01/2024]
Abstract
Hyperarousal symptoms in generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) are often incongruent with the observed physiological state, suggesting that abnormal processing of interoceptive signals is a characteristic feature of the disorder. To examine the neural mechanisms underlying interoceptive dysfunction in GAD, we evaluated whether adrenergic modulation of cardiovascular signaling differentially affects the heartbeat-evoked potential (HEP), an electrophysiological marker of cardiac interoception, during concurrent electroencephalogram and functional magnetic resonance imaging (EEG-fMRI) scanning. Intravenous infusions of the peripheral adrenergic agonist isoproterenol (0.5 and 2.0 micrograms, μg) were administered in a randomized, double-blinded and placebo-controlled fashion to dynamically perturb the cardiovascular system while recording the associated EEG-fMRI responses. During the 0.5 μg isoproterenol infusion, the GAD group (n = 24) exhibited significantly larger changes in HEP amplitude in an opposite direction than the healthy comparison (HC) group (n = 24). In addition, the GAD group showed significantly larger absolute HEP amplitudes than the HC group during saline infusions, when cardiovascular tone did not increase. No significant group differences in HEP amplitude were identified during the 2.0 μg isoproterenol infusion. Using analyzable blood oxygenation level-dependent fMRI data from participants with concurrent EEG-fMRI data (21 GAD and 21 HC), we found that the aforementioned HEP effects were uncorrelated with fMRI signals in the insula, ventromedial prefrontal cortex, dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, amygdala, and somatosensory cortex, brain regions implicated in cardiac signal processing in prior fMRI studies. These findings provide additional evidence of dysfunctional cardiac interoception in GAD and identify neural processes at the electrophysiological level that may be independent from blood oxygen level-dependent responses during peripheral adrenergic stimulation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Charles Verdonk
- Laureate Institute for Brain Research, Tulsa, OK, USA
- VIFASOM (EA 7330 Vigilance Fatigue, Sommeil et Santé Publique), Université Paris Cité, Paris, France
- French Armed Forces Biomedical Research Institute, Brétigny-sur-Orge, France
| | - Adam R Teed
- Laureate Institute for Brain Research, Tulsa, OK, USA
| | - Evan J White
- Laureate Institute for Brain Research, Tulsa, OK, USA
| | - Xi Ren
- Laureate Institute for Brain Research, Tulsa, OK, USA
| | - Jennifer L Stewart
- Laureate Institute for Brain Research, Tulsa, OK, USA
- Oxley College of Health Sciences, University of Tulsa, Tulsa, OK, USA
| | - Martin P Paulus
- Laureate Institute for Brain Research, Tulsa, OK, USA
- Oxley College of Health Sciences, University of Tulsa, Tulsa, OK, USA
| | - Sahib S Khalsa
- Laureate Institute for Brain Research, Tulsa, OK, USA.
- Oxley College of Health Sciences, University of Tulsa, Tulsa, OK, USA.
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5
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Redinbaugh MJ, Saalmann YB. Contributions of Basal Ganglia Circuits to Perception, Attention, and Consciousness. J Cogn Neurosci 2024; 36:1620-1642. [PMID: 38695762 PMCID: PMC11223727 DOI: 10.1162/jocn_a_02177] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 07/04/2024]
Abstract
Research into ascending sensory pathways and cortical networks has generated detailed models of perception. These same cortical regions are strongly connected to subcortical structures, such as the basal ganglia (BG), which have been conceptualized as playing key roles in reinforcement learning and action selection. However, because the BG amasses experiential evidence from higher and lower levels of cortical hierarchies, as well as higher-order thalamus, it is well positioned to dynamically influence perception. Here, we review anatomical, functional, and clinical evidence to demonstrate how the BG can influence perceptual processing and conscious states. This depends on the integrative relationship between cortex, BG, and thalamus, which allows contributions to sensory gating, predictive processing, selective attention, and representation of the temporal structure of events.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Yuri B Saalmann
- University of Wisconsin-Madison
- Wisconsin National Primate Research Center
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6
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Feldman MJ, Bliss-Moreau E, Lindquist KA. The neurobiology of interoception and affect. Trends Cogn Sci 2024; 28:643-661. [PMID: 38395706 PMCID: PMC11222051 DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2024.01.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/30/2023] [Revised: 01/25/2024] [Accepted: 01/26/2024] [Indexed: 02/25/2024]
Abstract
Scholars have argued for centuries that affective states involve interoception, or representations of the state of the body. Yet, we lack a mechanistic understanding of how signals from the body are transduced, transmitted, compressed, and integrated by the brains of humans to produce affective states. We suggest that to understand how the body contributes to affect, we first need to understand information flow through the nervous system's interoceptive pathways. We outline such a model and discuss how unique anatomical and physiological aspects of interoceptive pathways may give rise to the qualities of affective experiences in general and valence and arousal in particular. We conclude by considering implications and future directions for research on interoception, affect, emotions, and human mental experiences.
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Affiliation(s)
- M J Feldman
- Department of Psychology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
| | - E Bliss-Moreau
- Department of Psychology, University of California Davis, Davis, CA, USA; California National Primate Research Center, University of California Davis, Davis, CA, USA
| | - K A Lindquist
- Department of Psychology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
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7
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Young HA, Cousins AL, Byrd-Bredbenner C, Benton D, Gershon RC, Ghirardelli A, Latulippe ME, Scholey A, Wagstaff L. Alignment of Consumers' Expected Brain Benefits from Food and Supplements with Measurable Cognitive Performance Tests. Nutrients 2024; 16:1950. [PMID: 38931303 PMCID: PMC11206270 DOI: 10.3390/nu16121950] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/26/2024] [Revised: 05/31/2024] [Accepted: 06/07/2024] [Indexed: 06/28/2024] Open
Abstract
Consumers often cite cognitive improvements as reasons for making dietary changes or using dietary supplements, a motivation that if leveraged could greatly enhance public health. However, rarely is it considered whether standardized cognitive tests that are used in nutrition research are aligned to outcomes of interest to the consumer. This knowledge gap presents a challenge to the scientific substantiation of nutrition-based cognitive health benefits. Here we combined focus group transcript review using reflexive thematic analysis and a multidisciplinary expert panel exercise to evaluate the applicability of cognitive performance tools/tasks for substantiating the specific cognitive benefits articulated by consumers with the objectives to (1) understand how consumers comprehend the potential benefits of nutrition for brain health, and (2) determine the alignment between consumers desired brain benefits and validated tests and tools. We derived a 'Consumer Taxonomy of Cognitive and Affective Health in Nutrition Research' which describes the cognitive and affective structure from the consumers perspective. Experts agreed that validated tests exist for some consumer benefits including focused attention, sustained attention, episodic memory, energy levels, and anxiety. Prospective memory, flow, and presence represented novel benefits that require the development and validation of new tests and tools. Closing the gap between science and consumers and fostering co-creative approaches to nutrition research are critical to the development of products and dietary recommendations that support realizable cognitive benefits that benefit public health.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hayley A. Young
- Department of Psychology, Swansea University, Wales SA2 8PP, UK; (A.L.C.); (D.B.)
| | - Alecia L. Cousins
- Department of Psychology, Swansea University, Wales SA2 8PP, UK; (A.L.C.); (D.B.)
| | - Carol Byrd-Bredbenner
- Department of Nutritional Sciences, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ 08854, USA;
| | - David Benton
- Department of Psychology, Swansea University, Wales SA2 8PP, UK; (A.L.C.); (D.B.)
| | - Richard C. Gershon
- Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL 60208, USA;
| | | | - Marie E. Latulippe
- Institute for the Advancement of Food and Nutrition Sciences, Washington, DC 20005, USA;
| | - Andrew Scholey
- Nutrition Dietetics and Food, School of Clinical Sciences, Monash University, Notting Hill, VIC 3168, Australia;
- Centre for Mental Health and Brain Sciences, Swinburne University, Melbourne, VIC 3122, Australia
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8
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Varangot-Reille C, Pezzulo G, Thacker M. The fear-avoidance model as an embodied prediction of threat. COGNITIVE, AFFECTIVE & BEHAVIORAL NEUROSCIENCE 2024:10.3758/s13415-024-01199-4. [PMID: 38890209 DOI: 10.3758/s13415-024-01199-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 05/24/2024] [Indexed: 06/20/2024]
Abstract
The fear-avoidance model is a well-established framework in the understanding of persistent pain. It proposes a dichotomous path: either the context is interpreted as safe; there is no fear reaction and, therefore, the individual engages in active (positive) coping; or the context is interpreted as threatening, leading to a self-reinforcing vicious circle of fear and (negative) avoidance. We propose an embodied interpretation of this phenomenon employing the joint framework of predictive coding and active inference. The key idea is that multisensory integration of exteroceptive, proprioceptive, and interoceptive sensory inputs can lead to dysfunctional experiences of threat in nonthreatening situations. Threat inference can promote fear responses, maladaptive strategies (i.e., avoidance) and self-provides evidence for threat in associated or future contexts, or both. Under this treatment, the prediction of nonrealized threat becomes self-evidencing and context-invariant, and hence self-perpetuating. Safety cues are unable to attenuate the interpretation of the negative context as the dominant inference of the context is threatful and gains more precision and becomes resistant over time. Our model provides an explanation for the emergence of a dysfunctional fear response in the clinical setting despite apparent safety based on modern concepts from theoretical (computational) neuroscience.
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Affiliation(s)
- Clovis Varangot-Reille
- MSc Statistics and Computer Science for Data Science, University Lumière Lyon 2, Bron, France.
| | - Giovanni Pezzulo
- Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies, National Research Council, Rome, Italy
| | - Mick Thacker
- Department of Physiotherapy, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Dublin, Ireland
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9
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Parvizi-Wayne D, Sandved-Smith L, Pitliya RJ, Limanowski J, Tufft MRA, Friston KJ. Forgetting ourselves in flow: an active inference account of flow states and how we experience ourselves within them. Front Psychol 2024; 15:1354719. [PMID: 38887627 PMCID: PMC11182004 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1354719] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/12/2023] [Accepted: 04/26/2024] [Indexed: 06/20/2024] Open
Abstract
Flow has been described as a state of optimal performance, experienced universally across a broad range of domains: from art to athletics, gaming to writing. However, its phenomenal characteristics can, at first glance, be puzzling. Firstly, individuals in flow supposedly report a loss of self-awareness, even though they perform in a manner which seems to evince their agency and skill. Secondly, flow states are felt to be effortless, despite the prerequisite complexity of the tasks that engender them. In this paper, we unpick these features of flow, as well as others, through the active inference framework, which posits that action and perception are forms of active Bayesian inference directed at sustained self-organisation; i.e., the minimisation of variational free energy. We propose that the phenomenology of flow is rooted in the deployment of high precision weight over (i) the expected sensory consequences of action and (ii) beliefs about how action will sequentially unfold. This computational mechanism thus draws the embodied cognitive system to minimise the ensuing (i.e., expected) free energy through the exploitation of the pragmatic affordances at hand. Furthermore, given the challenging dynamics the flow-inducing situation presents, attention must be wholly focussed on the unfolding task whilst counterfactual planning is restricted, leading to the attested loss of the sense of self-as-object. This involves the inhibition of both the sense of self as a temporally extended object and higher-order, meta-cognitive forms of self-conceptualisation. Nevertheless, we stress that self-awareness is not entirely lost in flow. Rather, it is pre-reflective and bodily. Our approach to bodily-action-centred phenomenology can be applied to similar facets of seemingly agentive experience beyond canonical flow states, providing insights into the mechanisms of so-called selfless experiences, embodied expertise and wellbeing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Darius Parvizi-Wayne
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Lars Sandved-Smith
- Monash Centre for Consciousness and Contemplative Studies, Monash University, Clayton, VIC, Australia
| | - Riddhi J. Pitliya
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
- VERSES AI Research Lab, Los Angeles, CA, United States
| | - Jakub Limanowski
- Institute of Psychology, University of Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany
| | - Miles R. A. Tufft
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Karl J. Friston
- VERSES AI Research Lab, Los Angeles, CA, United States
- Queen Square Institute of Neurology, University College London, London, United Kingdom
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10
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Maymon CN, Crawford MT, Blackburne K, Botes A, Carnegie K, Mehr SA, Meier J, Murphy J, Miles NL, Robinson K, Tooley M, Grimshaw GM. The presence of fear: How subjective fear, not physiological changes, shapes the experience of presence. J Exp Psychol Gen 2024; 153:1500-1516. [PMID: 38635168 PMCID: PMC11182719 DOI: 10.1037/xge0001576] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 04/19/2024]
Abstract
When we become engrossed in novels, films, games, or even our own wandering thoughts, we can feel present in a reality distinct from the real world. Although this subjective sense of presence is, presumably, a ubiquitous aspect of conscious experience, the mechanisms that produce it are unknown. Correlational studies conducted in virtual reality have shown that we feel more present when we are afraid, motivating claims that physiological changes contribute to presence; however, such causal claims remain to be evaluated. Here, we report two experiments that test the causal role of subjective and physiological components of fear (i.e., activation of the sympathetic nervous system) in generating presence. In Study 1, we validated a virtual reality simulation capable of inducing fear. Participants rated their emotions while they crossed a wooden plank that appeared to be suspended above a city street; at the same time, we recorded heart rate and skin conductance levels. Height exposure increased ratings of fear, presence, and both measures of sympathetic activation. Although presence and fear ratings were correlated during height exposure, presence and sympathetic activation were unrelated. In Study 2, we manipulated whether the plank appeared at height or at ground level. We also captured participants' movements, which revealed that alongside increases in subjective fear, presence, and sympathetic activation, participants also moved more slowly at height relative to controls. Using a mediational approach, we found that the relationship between height exposure and presence on the plank was fully mediated by self-reported fear, and not by sympathetic activation. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | - André Botes
- University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
| | | | - Samuel A. Mehr
- University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
- Yale Child Study Center, New Haven, USA
| | | | - Justin Murphy
- Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand
| | | | - Kealagh Robinson
- Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand
- Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
| | - Michael Tooley
- Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand
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11
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Woelk SP, Garfinkel SN. Dissociative Symptoms and Interoceptive Integration. Curr Top Behav Neurosci 2024. [PMID: 38755513 DOI: 10.1007/7854_2024_480] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/18/2024]
Abstract
Dissociative symptoms and disorders of dissociation are characterised by disturbances in the experience of the self and the surrounding world, manifesting as a breakdown in the normal integration of consciousness, memory, identity, emotion, and perception. This paper aims to provide insights into dissociative symptoms from the perspective of interoception, the sense of the body's internal physiological state, adopting a transdiagnostic framework.Dissociative symptoms are associated with a blunting of autonomic reactivity and a reduction in interoceptive precision. In addition to the central function of interoception in homeostasis, afferent visceral signals and their neural and mental representation have been shown to shape emotional feeling states, support memory encoding, and contribute to self-representation. Changes in interoceptive processing and disrupted integration of interoceptive signals into wider cognition may contribute to detachment from the body and the world, blunted emotional experience, and altered subjective recall, as experienced by individuals who suffer from dissociation.A better understanding of the role of altered interoceptive integration across the symptom areas of dissociation could thus provide insights into the neurophysiological mechanisms underlying dissociative disorders. As new therapeutic approaches targeting interoceptive processing emerge, recognising the significance of interoceptive mechanisms in dissociation holds potential implications for future treatment targets.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sascha P Woelk
- Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London, UK.
| | - Sarah N Garfinkel
- Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London, UK
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12
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Brand K, Wise T, Hess AJ, Russell BR, Stephan KE, Harrison OK. Incorporating uncertainty within dynamic interoceptive learning. Front Psychol 2024; 15:1254564. [PMID: 38646115 PMCID: PMC11026658 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1254564] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/24/2023] [Accepted: 03/18/2024] [Indexed: 04/23/2024] Open
Abstract
Introduction Interoception, the perception of the internal state of the body, has been shown to be closely linked to emotions and mental health. Of particular interest are interoceptive learning processes that capture associations between environmental cues and body signals as a basis for making homeostatically relevant predictions about the future. One method of measuring respiratory interoceptive learning that has shown promising results is the Breathing Learning Task (BLT). While the original BLT required binary predictions regarding the presence or absence of an upcoming inspiratory resistance, here we extended this paradigm to capture continuous measures of prediction (un)certainty. Methods Sixteen healthy participants completed the continuous version of the BLT, where they were asked to predict the likelihood of breathing resistances on a continuous scale from 0.0 to 10.0. In order to explain participants' responses, a Rescorla-Wagner model of associative learning was combined with suitable observation models for continuous or binary predictions, respectively. For validation, we compared both models against corresponding null models and examined the correlation between observed and modeled predictions. The model was additionally extended to test whether learning rates differed according to stimuli valence. Finally, summary measures of prediction certainty as well as model estimates for learning rates were considered against interoceptive and mental health questionnaire measures. Results Our results demonstrated that the continuous model fits closely captured participant behavior using empirical data, and the binarised predictions showed excellent replicability compared to previously collected data. However, the model extension indicated that there were no significant differences between learning rates for negative (i.e. breathing resistance) and positive (i.e. no breathing resistance) stimuli. Finally, significant correlations were found between fatigue severity and both prediction certainty and learning rate, as well as between anxiety sensitivity and prediction certainty. Discussion These results demonstrate the utility of gathering enriched continuous prediction data in interoceptive learning tasks, and suggest that the updated BLT is a promising paradigm for future investigations into interoceptive learning and potential links to mental health.
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Affiliation(s)
- Katja Brand
- Translational Neuromodeling Unit, Institute for Biomedical Engineering, University of Zurich and ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
- Department of Psychology, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand
| | - Toby Wise
- King's College London, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, London, United Kingdom
| | - Alexander J. Hess
- Translational Neuromodeling Unit, Institute for Biomedical Engineering, University of Zurich and ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | | | - Klaas E. Stephan
- Translational Neuromodeling Unit, Institute for Biomedical Engineering, University of Zurich and ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
- Max Planck Institute for Metabolism Research, Cologne, Germany
| | - Olivia K. Harrison
- Translational Neuromodeling Unit, Institute for Biomedical Engineering, University of Zurich and ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
- Department of Psychology, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand
- Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
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13
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Petrosini L, Picerni E, Termine A, Fabrizio C, Laricchiuta D, Cutuli D. The Cerebellum as an Embodying Machine. Neuroscientist 2024; 30:229-246. [PMID: 36052895 DOI: 10.1177/10738584221120187] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
Whereas emotion theorists often keep their distance from the embodied approach, theorists of embodiment tend to treat emotion as a mainly physiologic process. However, intimate links between emotions and the body suggest that emotions are privileged phenomena to attempt to reintegrate mind and body and that the body helps the mind in shaping emotional responses. To date, research has favored the cerebrum over other parts of the brain as a substrate of embodied emotions. However, given the widely demonstrated contribution of the cerebellum to emotional processing, research in affective neuroscience should consider embodiment theory as a useful approach for evaluating the cerebellar role in emotion and affect. The aim of this review is to insert the cerebellum among the structures needed to embody emotions, providing illustrative examples of cerebellar involvement in embodied emotions (as occurring in empathic abilities) and in impaired identification and expression of embodied emotions (as occurring in alexithymia).
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | | | | | - Debora Cutuli
- Santa Lucia Foundation IRCCS, Rome, Italy
- Department of Psychology, University Sapienza of Rome, Rome, Italy
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14
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Toussaint B, Heinzle J, Stephan KE. A computationally informed distinction of interoception and exteroception. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2024; 159:105608. [PMID: 38432449 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2024.105608] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/06/2023] [Revised: 02/23/2024] [Accepted: 02/26/2024] [Indexed: 03/05/2024]
Abstract
While interoception is of major neuroscientific interest, its precise definition and delineation from exteroception continue to be debated. Here, we propose a functional distinction between interoception and exteroception based on computational concepts of sensor-effector loops. Under this view, the classification of sensory inputs as serving interoception or exteroception depends on the sensor-effector loop they feed into, for the control of either bodily (physiological and biochemical) or environmental states. We explain the utility of this perspective by examining the perception of skin temperature, one of the most challenging cases for distinguishing between interoception and exteroception. Specifically, we propose conceptualising thermoception as inference about the thermal state of the body (including the skin), which is directly coupled to thermoregulatory processes. This functional view emphasises the coupling to regulation (control) as a defining property of perception (inference) and connects the definition of interoception to contemporary computational theories of brain-body interactions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Birte Toussaint
- Translational Neuromodeling Unit (TNU), Institute for Biomedical Engineering, University of Zurich & ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
| | - Jakob Heinzle
- Translational Neuromodeling Unit (TNU), Institute for Biomedical Engineering, University of Zurich & ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Klaas Enno Stephan
- Translational Neuromodeling Unit (TNU), Institute for Biomedical Engineering, University of Zurich & ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland; Max Planck Institute for Metabolism Research, Cologne, Germany
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15
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Albarracin M, Bouchard-Joly G, Sheikhbahaee Z, Miller M, Pitliya RJ, Poirier P. Feeling our place in the world: an active inference account of self-esteem. Neurosci Conscious 2024; 2024:niae007. [PMID: 38562605 PMCID: PMC10984624 DOI: 10.1093/nc/niae007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/01/2023] [Revised: 12/21/2023] [Accepted: 02/20/2024] [Indexed: 04/04/2024] Open
Abstract
Self-esteem, the evaluation of one's own worth or value, is a critical aspect of psychological well-being and mental health. In this paper, we propose an active inference account of self-esteem, casting it as a sociometer or an inferential capacity to interpret one's standing within a social group. This approach allows us to explore the interaction between an individual's self-perception and the expectations of their social environment.When there is a mismatch between these perceptions and expectations, the individual needs to adjust their actions or update their self-perception to better align with their current experiences. We also consider this hypothesis in relation with recent research on affective inference, suggesting that self-esteem enables the individual to track and respond to this discrepancy through affective states such as anxiety or positive affect. By acting as an inferential sociometer, self-esteem allows individuals to navigate and adapt to their social environment, ultimately impacting their psychological well-being and mental health.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mahault Albarracin
- Département d'Informatique, Université du Québec à Montréal, 405 Rue Sainte-Catherine Est, Montreal H2L 2C4, QC, Canada
| | - Gabriel Bouchard-Joly
- Département d'Informatique, Université du Québec à Montréal, 405 Rue Sainte-Catherine Est, Montreal H2L 2C4, QC, Canada
| | - Zahra Sheikhbahaee
- CHU Sainte-Justine Research Center, University of Montreal, 5757, Av. Decelles bureau 500, Montreal, QC H3S 2C3, Canada
| | - Mark Miller
- Monash Centre for Consciousness and Contemplative Studies, Monash University, Melboume, Australia
- Psychology Department, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S 3G3, Canada
| | - Riddhi J Pitliya
- Department of Experimental Psychology Oxford University, Oxford OX1 2JD, United Kingdom
| | - Pierre Poirier
- Département d'Informatique, Université du Québec à Montréal, 405 Rue Sainte-Catherine Est, Montreal H2L 2C4, QC, Canada
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16
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Cesari V, D’Aversa S, Piarulli A, Melfi F, Gemignani A, Menicucci D. Sense of Agency and Skills Learning in Virtual-Mediated Environment: A Systematic Review. Brain Sci 2024; 14:350. [PMID: 38672002 PMCID: PMC11048251 DOI: 10.3390/brainsci14040350] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/21/2024] [Revised: 03/27/2024] [Accepted: 03/29/2024] [Indexed: 04/28/2024] Open
Abstract
Agency is central to remote actions, and it may enhance skills learning due to a partial overlap between brain structures and networks, the promotion of confidence towards a telemanipulator, and the feeling of congruence of the motor choice to the motor plan. We systematically reviewed studies aiming to verify the role of agency in improving learning. Fifteen studies were selected from MEDLINE and Scopus®. When a mismatch is introduced between observed and performed actions, the decrease in agency and learning is proportional to the intensity of the mismatch, which is due to greater interference with the motor programming. Thanks to multisensory integration, agency and learning benefit both from sensory and performance feedback and from the timing of feedback based on control at the goal level or the perceptual-motor level. This work constitutes a bedrock for professional teleoperation settings (e.g., robotic surgery), with particular reference to the role of agency in performing complex tasks with remote control.
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Affiliation(s)
- Valentina Cesari
- Department of Surgical, Medical and Molecular Pathology and Critical Care Medicine, University of Pisa, 56126 Pisa, Italy; (V.C.); (S.D.); (A.P.); (F.M.); (A.G.)
| | - Sveva D’Aversa
- Department of Surgical, Medical and Molecular Pathology and Critical Care Medicine, University of Pisa, 56126 Pisa, Italy; (V.C.); (S.D.); (A.P.); (F.M.); (A.G.)
| | - Andrea Piarulli
- Department of Surgical, Medical and Molecular Pathology and Critical Care Medicine, University of Pisa, 56126 Pisa, Italy; (V.C.); (S.D.); (A.P.); (F.M.); (A.G.)
| | - Franca Melfi
- Department of Surgical, Medical and Molecular Pathology and Critical Care Medicine, University of Pisa, 56126 Pisa, Italy; (V.C.); (S.D.); (A.P.); (F.M.); (A.G.)
| | - Angelo Gemignani
- Department of Surgical, Medical and Molecular Pathology and Critical Care Medicine, University of Pisa, 56126 Pisa, Italy; (V.C.); (S.D.); (A.P.); (F.M.); (A.G.)
- Clinical Psychology Branch, Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria Pisana, 56126 Pisa, Italy
| | - Danilo Menicucci
- Department of Surgical, Medical and Molecular Pathology and Critical Care Medicine, University of Pisa, 56126 Pisa, Italy; (V.C.); (S.D.); (A.P.); (F.M.); (A.G.)
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17
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Juliani A, Safron A, Kanai R. Deep CANALs: a deep learning approach to refining the canalization theory of psychopathology. Neurosci Conscious 2024; 2024:niae005. [PMID: 38533457 PMCID: PMC10965250 DOI: 10.1093/nc/niae005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/17/2023] [Revised: 01/15/2024] [Accepted: 01/19/2024] [Indexed: 03/28/2024] Open
Abstract
Psychedelic therapy has seen a resurgence of interest in the last decade, with promising clinical outcomes for the treatment of a variety of psychopathologies. In response to this success, several theoretical models have been proposed to account for the positive therapeutic effects of psychedelics. One of the more prominent models is "RElaxed Beliefs Under pSychedelics," which proposes that psychedelics act therapeutically by relaxing the strength of maladaptive high-level beliefs encoded in the brain. The more recent "CANAL" model of psychopathology builds on the explanatory framework of RElaxed Beliefs Under pSychedelics by proposing that canalization (the development of overly rigid belief landscapes) may be a primary factor in psychopathology. Here, we make use of learning theory in deep neural networks to develop a series of refinements to the original CANAL model. Our primary theoretical contribution is to disambiguate two separate optimization landscapes underlying belief representation in the brain and describe the unique pathologies which can arise from the canalization of each. Along each dimension, we identify pathologies of either too much or too little canalization, implying that the construct of canalization does not have a simple linear correlation with the presentation of psychopathology. In this expanded paradigm, we demonstrate the ability to make novel predictions regarding what aspects of psychopathology may be amenable to psychedelic therapy, as well as what forms of psychedelic therapy may ultimately be most beneficial for a given individual.
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Affiliation(s)
- Arthur Juliani
- Microsoft Research , Microsoft, 300 Lafayette St, New York, NY 10012, USA
| | - Adam Safron
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, 600 N Wolfe St, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA
| | - Ryota Kanai
- Neurotechnology R & D Unit, Araya Inc, 6F Sanpo Sakuma Building, 1-11 Kandasakumacho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 101-0025, Japan
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18
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Biddell H, Solms M, Slagter H, Laukkonen R. Arousal coherence, uncertainty, and well-being: an active inference account. Neurosci Conscious 2024; 2024:niae011. [PMID: 38504827 PMCID: PMC10949961 DOI: 10.1093/nc/niae011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/02/2023] [Revised: 02/14/2024] [Accepted: 02/26/2024] [Indexed: 03/21/2024] Open
Abstract
Here we build on recent findings which show that greater alignment between our subjective experiences (how we feel) and physiological states (measurable changes in our body) plays a pivotal role in the overall psychological well-being. Specifically, we propose that the alignment or 'coherence' between affective arousal (e.g. how excited we 'feel') and autonomic arousal (e.g. heart rate or pupil dilation) may be key for maintaining up-to-date uncertainty representations in dynamic environments. Drawing on recent advances in interoceptive and affective inference, we also propose that arousal coherence reflects interoceptive integration, facilitates adaptive belief updating, and impacts our capacity to adapt to changes in uncertainty, with downstream consequences to well-being. We also highlight the role of meta-awareness of arousal, a third level of inference, which may permit conscious awareness, learning about, and intentional regulation of lower-order sources of arousal. Practices emphasizing meta-awareness of arousal (like meditation) may therefore elicit some of their known benefits via improved arousal coherence. We suggest that arousal coherence is also likely to be associated with markers of adaptive functioning (like emotional awareness and self-regulatory capacities) and discuss mind-body practices that may increase coherence.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hannah Biddell
- School of Psychology, The University of Queensland, Saint Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia
| | - Mark Solms
- Department of Psychology, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, Western Cape 7701, South Africa
| | - Heleen Slagter
- Department of Applied and Experimental Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam 1081 HV, The Netherlands
- Institute for Brain and Behaviour, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam 1081 HV, The Netherlands
| | - Ruben Laukkonen
- School of Psychology, Southern Cross University, Gold Coast, QLD 4225, Australia
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19
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White B, Clark A, Miller M. Digital Being: social media and the predictive mind. Neurosci Conscious 2024; 2024:niae008. [PMID: 38504826 PMCID: PMC10949958 DOI: 10.1093/nc/niae008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/15/2023] [Revised: 12/27/2023] [Accepted: 02/22/2024] [Indexed: 03/21/2024] Open
Abstract
Social media is implicated today in an array of mental health concerns. While concerns around social media have become mainstream, little is known about the specific cognitive mechanisms underlying the correlations seen in these studies or why we find it so hard to stop engaging with these platforms when things obviously begin to deteriorate for us. New advances in computational neuroscience, however, are now poised to shed light on this matter. In this paper, we approach the phenomenon of social media addiction through the lens of the active inference framework. According to this framework, predictive agents like us use a 'generative model' of the world to predict our own incoming sense data and act to minimize any discrepancy between the prediction and incoming signal (prediction error). In order to live well and be able to act effectively to minimize prediction error, it is vital that agents like us have a generative model, which not only accurately reflects the regularities of our complex environment but is also flexible and dynamic and able to stay accurate in volatile and turbulent circumstances. In this paper, we propose that some social media platforms are a spectacularly effective way of warping an agent's generative model and of arresting the model's ability to flexibly track and adapt to changes in the environment. We go on to investigate cases of digital tech, which do not have these adverse effects and suggest-based on the active inference framework-some ways to understand why some forms of digital technology pose these risks, while others do not.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ben White
- School of Media, Arts and Humanities, University of Sussex, Arts A07, Brighton BN1 9RH, United Kingdom
| | - Andy Clark
- School of Media, Arts and Humanities, University of Sussex, Arts A07, Brighton BN1 9RH, United Kingdom
- Department of Philosophy, Macquarie University, Macquarie University Wallumattagal Campus Macquarie Park, Sydney, NSW 2109, Australia
| | - Mark Miller
- Monash Centre for Consciousness and Contemplative Studies, Monash University, Wellington Rd, Clayton, Melbourne, VIC 3800, Australia
- Psychology Department, University of Toronto, 100 St. George Street, 4th Floor, Sidney Smith Hall, Toronto, ON M5S 3G3, Canada
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20
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Riddle J, Schooler JW. Hierarchical consciousness: the Nested Observer Windows model. Neurosci Conscious 2024; 2024:niae010. [PMID: 38504828 PMCID: PMC10949963 DOI: 10.1093/nc/niae010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/08/2023] [Revised: 01/31/2024] [Accepted: 02/26/2024] [Indexed: 03/21/2024] Open
Abstract
Foremost in our experience is the intuition that we possess a unified conscious experience. However, many observations run counter to this intuition: we experience paralyzing indecision when faced with two appealing behavioral choices, we simultaneously hold contradictory beliefs, and the content of our thought is often characterized by an internal debate. Here, we propose the Nested Observer Windows (NOW) Model, a framework for hierarchical consciousness wherein information processed across many spatiotemporal scales of the brain feeds into subjective experience. The model likens the mind to a hierarchy of nested mosaic tiles-where an image is composed of mosaic tiles, and each of these tiles is itself an image composed of mosaic tiles. Unitary consciousness exists at the apex of this nested hierarchy where perceptual constructs become fully integrated and complex behaviors are initiated via abstract commands. We define an observer window as a spatially and temporally constrained system within which information is integrated, e.g. in functional brain regions and neurons. Three principles from the signal analysis of electrical activity describe the nested hierarchy and generate testable predictions. First, nested observer windows disseminate information across spatiotemporal scales with cross-frequency coupling. Second, observer windows are characterized by a high degree of internal synchrony (with zero phase lag). Third, observer windows at the same spatiotemporal level share information with each other through coherence (with non-zero phase lag). The theoretical framework of the NOW Model accounts for a wide range of subjective experiences and a novel approach for integrating prominent theories of consciousness.
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Affiliation(s)
- Justin Riddle
- Department of Psychology, Florida State University, 1107 W Call St, Tallahassee, FL 32304, USA
| | - Jonathan W Schooler
- Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, University of California, Santa Barbara, Psychological & Brain Sciences, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA
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21
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Gwyther MPD, Lenggenhager B, Windt JM, Aspell JE, Ciaunica A. Examining the association between depersonalisation traits and the bodily self in waking and dreaming. Sci Rep 2024; 14:6107. [PMID: 38480797 PMCID: PMC10937666 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-56119-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/19/2023] [Accepted: 02/29/2024] [Indexed: 03/17/2024] Open
Abstract
Depersonalisation (DP) is characterized by fundamental alterations to the sense of self that include feelings of detachment and estrangement from one's body. We conducted an online study in healthy participants (n = 514) with DP traits to investigate and quantify the subjective experience of body and self during waking and dreaming, as the vast majority of previous studies focussed on waking experience only. Investigating dreams in people experiencing DP symptoms may help us understand whether the dream state is a 'spared space' where people can temporarily 'retrieve' their sense of self and sense of bodily presence. We found that higher DP traits-i.e. higher scores on the Cambridge Depersonalisation Scale (CDS)-were associated with more frequent dream experiences from an outside observer perspective (r = 0.28) and more frequent dream experiences of distinct bodily sensations (r = 0.23). We also found that people with higher CDS scores had more frequent dream experiences of altered bodily perception (r = 0.24), more frequent nightmares (r = 0.33) and higher dream recall (r = 0.17). CDS scores were negatively correlated with body boundary scores (r = - 0.31) in waking states and there was a negative association between CDS scores and the degree of trust in interoceptive signals (r = - 0.52). Our study elucidates the complex phenomenology of DP in relation to bodily selfhood during waking and dreaming and suggests avenues for potential therapeutic interventions in people with chronic depersonalisation (depersonalisation -derealisation disorder).
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Affiliation(s)
- Matt P D Gwyther
- School of Psychology and Sport Science, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, UK.
| | - Bigna Lenggenhager
- Department of Psychology, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
- Department of Psychology, University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany
| | - Jennifer M Windt
- Department of Philosophy, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
- Monash Centre for Consciousness and Contemplative Studies, Melbourne, Australia
| | - Jane E Aspell
- School of Psychology and Sport Science, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, UK
| | - Anna Ciaunica
- Centre for Philosophy of Science, University of Lisbon, Campo Grande, 1749-016, Lisbon, Portugal
- Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London, WC1N 3AR, UK
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22
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Pelentritou A, Pfeiffer C, Schwartz S, De Lucia M. Cardio-audio synchronization elicits neural and cardiac surprise responses in human wakefulness and sleep. Commun Biol 2024; 7:226. [PMID: 38396068 PMCID: PMC10891147 DOI: 10.1038/s42003-024-05895-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/02/2023] [Accepted: 02/07/2024] [Indexed: 02/25/2024] Open
Abstract
The human brain can encode auditory regularities with fixed sound-to-sound intervals and with sound onsets locked to cardiac inputs. Here, we investigated auditory and cardio-audio regularity encoding during sleep, when bodily and environmental stimulus processing may be altered. Using electroencephalography and electrocardiography in healthy volunteers (N = 26) during wakefulness and sleep, we measured the response to unexpected sound omissions within three regularity conditions: synchronous, where sound and heartbeat are temporally coupled, isochronous, with fixed sound-to-sound intervals, and a control condition without regularity. Cardio-audio regularity encoding manifested as a heartbeat deceleration upon omissions across vigilance states. The synchronous and isochronous sequences induced a modulation of the omission-evoked neural response in wakefulness and N2 sleep, the former accompanied by background oscillatory activity reorganization. The violation of cardio-audio and auditory regularity elicits cardiac and neural responses across vigilance states, laying the ground for similar investigations in altered consciousness states such as coma and anaesthesia.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andria Pelentritou
- Laboratoire de Recherche en Neuroimagerie (LREN), Lausanne University Hospital and University of Lausanne, 1011, Lausanne, Switzerland.
| | - Christian Pfeiffer
- Robotics and Perception Group, University of Zurich, 8050, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Sophie Schwartz
- Department of Neuroscience, Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva, 1211, Geneva, Switzerland
- Swiss Center for Affective Sciences, University of Geneva, 1202, Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Marzia De Lucia
- Laboratoire de Recherche en Neuroimagerie (LREN), Lausanne University Hospital and University of Lausanne, 1011, Lausanne, Switzerland.
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23
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González-Grandón X, Cadena-Alvear I, Gastelum-Vargas M. Interoceptive experiences and ecological care: an embodied approach within therapeutical realms. Front Psychol 2024; 15:1246906. [PMID: 38406300 PMCID: PMC10884145 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1246906] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/24/2023] [Accepted: 01/17/2024] [Indexed: 02/27/2024] Open
Abstract
The conventional dichotomy between human health and disease has historically been approached through reductionist models that emphasize the exclusive causal relevance of physiological and pathological processes. Consequently, self-awareness and affective dimensions, integral to a phenomenological perspective, are often relegated to secondary traits, affording little consideration for the causal role of embodied living organization. Our interest lies in exploring the potential relevance of the phenomenology of embodied self-awareness in relation to interoceptive processes within therapeutic settings. As we illustrate, when the unfolding processes of interoceptive awareness and its affective capacity take precedence, the agent assumes an active, rather than passive, role in their own experience of health or illness. Departing from an enactive, phenomenological, and ecological standpoint, we propose a distinctive perspective on interoceptive processes, relying on an affective conceptualization of a spectrum of experiences of bodily being-in-the-world. Our primary argument posits that considering interoceptive processes from an embodied and ecological viewpoint of the self, interacting with the material and social environment, enables an approach to the gradient of affective experiences of embodied self-awareness-where pleasure or suffering is perceived and felt-in a naturalized, non-reductive, and relational manner. We discern two ways in which interoceptive processes interrelate with the experience of embodied self-awareness: sensitivity (self-affective) and affective-laden perception. Drawing on this distinction, we provide a nuanced description of these experiences within communities of cis-women, exemplified through the contexts of menstruation and endometriosis. This exploration seeks to enhance our understanding of the phenomenology of embodied, ecological, and affective self-experience from within diverse and situated bodies. The goal is to contribute to their autonomy and ability to adapt and self-regulate within therapeutic contexts.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ximena González-Grandón
- Departamento de Educación, Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico City, Mexico
- Faculty of Medicine, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City, Mexico
- Instituto de Filosofía y Ciencias de la Complejidad, Santiago, Chile
| | - Itzel Cadena-Alvear
- Faculty of Psychology, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City, Mexico
| | - Melina Gastelum-Vargas
- Faculty of Philosophy and Literature, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City, Mexico
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24
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Pezzulo G, Parr T, Friston K. Active inference as a theory of sentient behavior. Biol Psychol 2024; 186:108741. [PMID: 38182015 DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2023.108741] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/18/2023] [Revised: 12/05/2023] [Accepted: 12/29/2023] [Indexed: 01/07/2024]
Abstract
This review paper offers an overview of the history and future of active inference-a unifying perspective on action and perception. Active inference is based upon the idea that sentient behavior depends upon our brains' implicit use of internal models to predict, infer, and direct action. Our focus is upon the conceptual roots and development of this theory of (basic) sentience and does not follow a rigid chronological narrative. We trace the evolution from Helmholtzian ideas on unconscious inference, through to a contemporary understanding of action and perception. In doing so, we touch upon related perspectives, the neural underpinnings of active inference, and the opportunities for future development. Key steps in this development include the formulation of predictive coding models and related theories of neuronal message passing, the use of sequential models for planning and policy optimization, and the importance of hierarchical (temporally) deep internal (i.e., generative or world) models. Active inference has been used to account for aspects of anatomy and neurophysiology, to offer theories of psychopathology in terms of aberrant precision control, and to unify extant psychological theories. We anticipate further development in all these areas and note the exciting early work applying active inference beyond neuroscience. This suggests a future not just in biology, but in robotics, machine learning, and artificial intelligence.
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Affiliation(s)
- Giovanni Pezzulo
- Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies, National Research Council, Rome, Italy.
| | - Thomas Parr
- Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, UK
| | - Karl Friston
- Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, Queen Square Institute of Neurology, University College London, London, UK; VERSES AI Research Lab, Los Angeles, CA 90016, USA
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25
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Di Plinio S, Arnò S, Ebisch SJH. The state-trait sense of self inventory: A psychometric study of self-experience and its relation to psychosis-like manifestations. Conscious Cogn 2024; 118:103634. [PMID: 38215634 DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2024.103634] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/11/2023] [Revised: 12/23/2023] [Accepted: 01/01/2024] [Indexed: 01/14/2024]
Abstract
The sense of self is a fundamental construct in the study of the mind, yet its psychological nature remains elusive. We introduce a novel 25-item inventory to investigate selfhood both as an enduring trait and a temporary state. We hypothesized two foundational aspects of the self: identity (related to self-referencing and continuity over time) and agency (the perception of controlling own's actions and thoughts). Results from two population studies highlight a singular self-trait factor combining agency and identity. In contrast, self-state measures revealed a bifactorial structure with a high-order factor and three lower-order subfactors: state-identity, state-agency, and state-technology. These factors were predictive of psychosis-like experiences, schizotypal traits, and hopelessness. Mediation analysis demonstrated that the negative association between the sense of self and hopelessness is mediated by depressive manifestations. Our research provides a tool to shed new light on the complexity of the sense of self and its mental health implications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Simone Di Plinio
- University G D'Annunzio of Chieti-Pescara, Department of Neuroscience, Imaging, and Clinical Science, Italy.
| | - Simone Arnò
- University G D'Annunzio of Chieti-Pescara, Department of Neuroscience, Imaging, and Clinical Science, Italy
| | - Sjoerd J H Ebisch
- University G D'Annunzio of Chieti-Pescara, Department of Neuroscience, Imaging, and Clinical Science, Italy
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26
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Miller M, White B, Scrivner C. Surfing uncertainty with screams: predictive processing, error dynamics and horror films. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2024; 379:20220425. [PMID: 38104602 PMCID: PMC10725765 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2022.0425] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/27/2023] [Accepted: 10/08/2023] [Indexed: 12/19/2023] Open
Abstract
Despite tremendous efforts in psychology, neuroscience and media and cultural studies, it is still something of a mystery why humans are attracted to fictional content that is horrifying, disgusting or otherwise aversive. While the psychological benefits of horror films, stories, video games, etc. has recently been demonstrated empirically, current theories emphasizing the negative and positive consequences of this engagement often contradict one another. Here, we suggest the predictive processing framework may provide a unifying account of horror content engagement that provides clear and testable hypotheses, and explains why a 'sweet spot' of fear and fun exists in horror entertainment. This article is part of the theme issue 'Art, aesthetics and predictive processing: theoretical and empirical perspectives'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mark Miller
- Centre for Consciousness and Contemplative Studies, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria 3800, Australia
- Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5R 0A3
| | - Ben White
- School of Media, Arts and Humanities, University of Sussex, Brighton, BN1 9RH, UK
| | - Coltan Scrivner
- Recreational Fear Lab, Aarhus University, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark
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27
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Fernández Velasco P, Loev S. Metacognitive Feelings: A Predictive-Processing Perspective. PERSPECTIVES ON PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE 2024:17456916231221976. [PMID: 38285929 DOI: 10.1177/17456916231221976] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/31/2024]
Abstract
Metacognitive feelings are affective experiences that concern the subject's mental processes and capacities. Paradigmatic examples include the feeling of familiarity, the feeling of confidence, or the tip-of-the-tongue experience. In this article, we advance an account of metacognitive feelings based on the predictive-processing framework. The core tenet of predictive processing is that the brain is a hierarchical hypothesis-testing mechanism, predicting sensory input on the basis of prior experience and updating predictions on the basis of the incoming prediction error. According to the proposed account, metacognitive feelings arise out of a process in which visceral changes serve as cues to predict the error dynamics relating to a particular mental process. The expected rate of prediction-error reduction corresponds to the valence at the core of the emerging metacognitive feeling. Metacognitive feelings use prediction dynamics to model the agent's situation in a way that is both descriptive and directive. Thus, metacognitive feelings are not only an appraisal of ongoing cognitive performance but also a set of action policies. These action policies span predictive trajectories across bodily action, mental action, and interoceptive changes, which together transform the epistemic landscape within which metacognitive feelings unfold.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Slawa Loev
- Philosophy of Science and the Study of Religion, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich
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Barbieri P, Sarasso P, Lodico F, Aliverti A, Murayama K, Sacco K, Ronga I. The aesthetic valve: how aesthetic appreciation may switch emotional states from anxiety to curiosity. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2024; 379:20220413. [PMID: 38104608 PMCID: PMC10725764 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2022.0413] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/23/2023] [Accepted: 11/02/2023] [Indexed: 12/19/2023] Open
Abstract
Pursuing new knowledge in the entropic environment is pivotal for survival. However, dealing with uncertainty is a costly challenge for the agent surrounded by the stochastic sensory world, giving rise to different epistemic emotions, such as curiosity and anxiety. We recently proposed that aesthetic appreciation may have the role of associating pleasant feedback with the update of predictive representations. According to this idea, aesthetic appreciation and its associated rewarding feeling could drive people to seek new knowledge over anxiety. However, the relationship between aesthetic appreciation, curiosity, and anxiety has been still under-examined in the literature. Here, we explore the relationship between these epistemic emotions in a series of three experiments. In study 1, we examined whether music-induced aesthetic appreciation would influence curiosity in a gambling task. In studies 2a and 2b, we explore the relationship between music-induced aesthetic appreciation and anxiety state. Overall, aesthetic appreciation promoted curiosity-driven behaviour while it was negatively associated with anxiety. These results were consistent with the idea that aesthetic appreciation could act as a 'valve', prompting the individual to perceive curiosity (i.e. to consider novelty as a valuable opportunity to acquire new knowledge) rather than anxiety (i.e. to consider novelty as a risk to be avoided). This article is part of the theme issue 'Art, aesthetics and predictive processing: theoretical and empirical perspectives'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Paolo Barbieri
- BIP (BraIn Plasticity and Behaviour Changes) Research Group, Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Turin, Piemonte 10124, Italy
| | - Pietro Sarasso
- BIP (BraIn Plasticity and Behaviour Changes) Research Group, Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Turin, Piemonte 10124, Italy
| | - Fabio Lodico
- BIP (BraIn Plasticity and Behaviour Changes) Research Group, Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Turin, Piemonte 10124, Italy
| | - Alice Aliverti
- BIP (BraIn Plasticity and Behaviour Changes) Research Group, Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Turin, Piemonte 10124, Italy
| | - Kou Murayama
- Hector Research Institute of Education Sciences and Psychology, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Baden-Württemberg, 72074, Germany
| | - Katiuscia Sacco
- BIP (BraIn Plasticity and Behaviour Changes) Research Group, Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Turin, Piemonte 10124, Italy
| | - Irene Ronga
- BIP (BraIn Plasticity and Behaviour Changes) Research Group, Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Turin, Piemonte 10124, Italy
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Krupnik V. I like therefore I can, and I can therefore I like: the role of self-efficacy and affect in active inference of allostasis. Front Neural Circuits 2024; 18:1283372. [PMID: 38322807 PMCID: PMC10839114 DOI: 10.3389/fncir.2024.1283372] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/25/2023] [Accepted: 01/02/2024] [Indexed: 02/08/2024] Open
Abstract
Active inference (AIF) is a theory of the behavior of information-processing open dynamic systems. It describes them as generative models (GM) generating inferences on the causes of sensory input they receive from their environment. Based on these inferences, GMs generate predictions about sensory input. The discrepancy between a prediction and the actual input results in prediction error. GMs then execute action policies predicted to minimize the prediction error. The free-energy principle provides a rationale for AIF by stipulating that information-processing open systems must constantly minimize their free energy (through suppressing the cumulative prediction error) to avoid decay. The theory of homeostasis and allostasis has a similar logic. Homeostatic set points are expectations of living organisms. Discrepancies between set points and actual states generate stress. For optimal functioning, organisms avoid stress by preserving homeostasis. Theories of AIF and homeostasis have recently converged, with AIF providing a formal account for homeo- and allostasis. In this paper, we present bacterial chemotaxis as molecular AIF, where mutual constraints by extero- and interoception play an essential role in controlling bacterial behavior supporting homeostasis. Extending this insight to the brain, we propose a conceptual model of the brain homeostatic GM, in which we suggest partition of the brain GM into cognitive and physiological homeostatic GMs. We outline their mutual regulation as well as their integration based on the free-energy principle. From this analysis, affect and self-efficacy emerge as the main regulators of the cognitive homeostatic GM. We suggest fatigue and depression as target neurocognitive phenomena for studying the neural mechanisms of such regulation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Valery Krupnik
- Department of Mental Health, Naval Hospital Camp Pendleton, Camp Pendleton, Oceanside, CA, United States
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Gunia A, Moraresku S, Janča R, Ježdík P, Kalina A, Hammer J, Marusič P, Vlček K. The brain dynamics of visuospatial perspective-taking captured by intracranial EEG. Neuroimage 2024; 285:120487. [PMID: 38072339 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2023.120487] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/05/2023] [Revised: 09/18/2023] [Accepted: 12/05/2023] [Indexed: 12/24/2023] Open
Abstract
Visuospatial perspective-taking (VPT) is the ability to imagine a scene from a position different from the one used in self-perspective judgments (SPJ). We typically use VPT to understand how others see the environment. VPT requires overcoming the self-perspective, and impairments in this process are implicated in various brain disorders, such as schizophrenia and autism. However, the underlying brain areas of VPT are not well distinguished from SPJ-related ones and from domain-general responses to both perspectives. In addition, hierarchical processing theory suggests that domain-specific processes emerge over time from domain-general ones. It mainly focuses on the sensory system, but outside of it, support for this hypothesis is lacking. Therefore, we aimed to spatiotemporally distinguish brain responses domain-specific to VPT from the specific ones to self-perspective, and domain-general responses to both perspectives. In particular, we intended to test whether VPT- and SPJ specific responses begin later than the general ones. We recorded intracranial EEG data from 30 patients with epilepsy who performed a task requiring laterality judgments during VPT and SPJ, and analyzed the spatiotemporal features of responses in the broad gamma band (50-150 Hz). We found VPT-specific processing in a more extensive brain network than SPJ-specific processing. Their dynamics were similar, but both differed from the general responses, which began earlier and lasted longer. Our results anatomically distinguish VPT-specific from SPJ-specific processing. Furthermore, we temporally differentiate between domain-specific and domain-general processes both inside and outside the sensory system, which serves as a novel example of hierarchical processing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anna Gunia
- Laboratory of Neurophysiology of Memory, Institute of Physiology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic; Charles University, Third Faculty of Medicine, Prague, Czech Republic.
| | - Sofiia Moraresku
- Laboratory of Neurophysiology of Memory, Institute of Physiology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic; Charles University, Third Faculty of Medicine, Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Radek Janča
- Department of Circuit Theory, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague, Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Petr Ježdík
- Department of Circuit Theory, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague, Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Adam Kalina
- Department of Neurology, Second Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, Motol University Hospital, Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Jiří Hammer
- Department of Neurology, Second Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, Motol University Hospital, Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Petr Marusič
- Department of Neurology, Second Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, Motol University Hospital, Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Kamil Vlček
- Laboratory of Neurophysiology of Memory, Institute of Physiology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic.
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Lazarov A, Liberman N, Dar R. The Seeking Proxies for Internal States (SPIS) Model of OCD - A Comprehensive Review of Current Findings and Implications for Future Directions. Curr Neuropharmacol 2024; 22:1807-1825. [PMID: 37881091 DOI: 10.2174/1570159x21666230920165403] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/25/2023] [Revised: 04/17/2023] [Accepted: 05/19/2023] [Indexed: 10/27/2023] Open
Abstract
The Seeking Proxies for Internal States (SPIS) model of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) explains symptoms of OCD as stemming from attenuated access to internal states, which is compensated for by using proxies, which are indices of these states that are more discernible or less ambiguous. Internal states in the SPIS model are subjective states that are not accessible to others, encompassing physiological states, motivations, preferences, memories, and emotions. Compensatory proxies in OCD include fixed rules and rituals as well as seeking and relying on external information. In the present review, we outline the SPIS model and describe its basic tenets. We then use the SPIS conceptualization to explain two pivotal OCD-related phenomena - obsessive doubt and compulsive rituals. Next, we provide a detailed overview of current empirical evidence supporting the SPIS in several domains, including physiological states, emotions, sense of understanding, decision-making, and sense of agency. We conclude by discussing possible neural correlates of the difficulty in accessing internal states, focusing on the anterior insular cortex (AIC) and highlighting potential clinical implications of the model to the treatment of OCD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Amit Lazarov
- School of Psychological Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel
| | - Nira Liberman
- School of Psychological Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel
| | - Reuven Dar
- School of Psychological Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel
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Joshi SD, Ruffini G, Nuttall HE, Watson DG, Braithwaite JJ. Optimised Multi-Channel Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (MtDCS) Reveals Differential Involvement of the Right-Ventrolateral Prefrontal Cortex (rVLPFC) and Insular Complex in those Predisposed to Aberrant Experiences. Conscious Cogn 2024; 117:103610. [PMID: 38056338 DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2023.103610] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/04/2023] [Revised: 11/20/2023] [Accepted: 11/22/2023] [Indexed: 12/08/2023]
Abstract
Research has shown a prominent role for cortical hyperexcitability underlying aberrant perceptions, hallucinations, and distortions in human conscious experience - even in neurotypical groups. The rVLPFC has been identified as an important structure in mediating cognitive affective states / feeling conscious states. The current study examined the involvement of the rVLPFC in mediating cognitive affective states in those predisposed to aberrant experiences in the neurotypical population. Participants completed two trait-based measures: (i) the Cortical Hyperexcitability Index_II (CHi_II, a proxy measure of cortical hyperexcitability) and (ii) two factors from the Cambridge Depersonalisation Scale (CDS). An optimised 7-channel MtDCS montage for stimulation conditions (Anodal, Cathodal and Sham) was created targeting the rVLPFC in a single-blind study. At the end of each stimulation session, participants completed a body-threat task (BTAB) while skin conductance responses (SCRs) and psychological responses were recorded. Participants with signs of increasing cortical hyperexcitability showed significant suppression of SCRs in the Cathodal stimulation relative to the Anodal and sSham conditions. Those high on the trait-based measures of depersonalisation-like experiences failed to show reliable effects. Collectively, the findings suggest that baseline brain states can mediate the effects of neurostimulation which would be missed via sample level averaging and without appropriate measures for stratifying individual differences.
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Verdonk C, Teed AR, White EJ, Ren X, Stewart JL, Paulus MP, Khalsa SS. Heartbeat-evoked neural response abnormalities in generalized anxiety disorder during peripheral adrenergic stimulation. MEDRXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR HEALTH SCIENCES 2023:2023.06.09.23291166. [PMID: 37398268 PMCID: PMC10312828 DOI: 10.1101/2023.06.09.23291166] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 07/04/2023]
Abstract
Hyperarousal symptoms in generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) are often incongruent with the observed physiological state, suggesting that abnormal processing of interoceptive signals is a characteristic feature of the disorder. To examine the neural mechanisms underlying interoceptive dysfunction in GAD, we evaluated whether adrenergic modulation of cardiovascular signaling differentially affects the heartbeat evoked potential (HEP), an electrophysiological marker of cardiac interoception, during concurrent electroencephalogram and functional magnetic resonance imaging (EEG-fMRI) scanning. Intravenous infusions of the peripheral adrenergic agonist isoproterenol (0.5 and 2.0 micrograms, μg) were administered in a randomized, double-blinded and placebo-controlled fashion to dynamically perturb the cardiovascular system while recording the associated EEG-fMRI responses. During the 0.5 μg isoproterenol infusion, the GAD group (n=24) exhibited significantly larger changes in HEP amplitude in an opposite direction than the HC group (n=24). In addition, the GAD group showed significantly larger absolute HEP amplitudes than HC during saline infusions, when cardiovascular tone did not increase. No significant group differences in HEP amplitude were identified during the 2.0 μg isoproterenol infusion. Using analyzable blood oxygenation level dependent fMRI data from participants with concurrent EEG-fMRI data (21 GAD and 21 HC), we found that the aforementioned HEP effects were uncorrelated with fMRI signals in the insula, ventromedial prefrontal cortex, dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, amygdala, and somatosensory cortex, brain regions implicated in cardiac signal processing according to prior fMRI studies. These findings provide additional evidence of dysfunctional cardiac interoception in GAD and identify neural processes at the electrophysiological level that may be independent from blood oxygen level-dependent responses during peripheral adrenergic stimulation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Charles Verdonk
- Laureate Institute for Brain Research, Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States
- VIFASOM (EA 7330 Vigilance Fatigue, Sommeil et Santé Publique), Université Paris Cité, Paris, France
- French Armed Forces Biomedical Research Institute, Brétigny-sur-Orge, France
| | - Adam R. Teed
- Laureate Institute for Brain Research, Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States
| | - Evan J. White
- Laureate Institute for Brain Research, Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States
| | - Xi Ren
- Laureate Institute for Brain Research, Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States
| | - Jennifer L. Stewart
- Laureate Institute for Brain Research, Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States
- Oxley College of Health Sciences, University of Tulsa, Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States
| | - Martin P. Paulus
- Laureate Institute for Brain Research, Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States
- Oxley College of Health Sciences, University of Tulsa, Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States
| | - Sahib S. Khalsa
- Laureate Institute for Brain Research, Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States
- Oxley College of Health Sciences, University of Tulsa, Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States
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Grundei M, Schmidt TT, Blankenburg F. A multimodal cortical network of sensory expectation violation revealed by fMRI. Hum Brain Mapp 2023; 44:5871-5891. [PMID: 37721377 PMCID: PMC10619418 DOI: 10.1002/hbm.26482] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/21/2023] [Revised: 07/04/2023] [Accepted: 08/29/2023] [Indexed: 09/19/2023] Open
Abstract
The brain is subjected to multi-modal sensory information in an environment governed by statistical dependencies. Mismatch responses (MMRs), classically recorded with EEG, have provided valuable insights into the brain's processing of regularities and the generation of corresponding sensory predictions. Only few studies allow for comparisons of MMRs across multiple modalities in a simultaneous sensory stream and their corresponding cross-modal context sensitivity remains unknown. Here, we used a tri-modal version of the roving stimulus paradigm in fMRI to elicit MMRs in the auditory, somatosensory and visual modality. Participants (N = 29) were simultaneously presented with sequences of low and high intensity stimuli in each of the three senses while actively observing the tri-modal input stream and occasionally reporting the intensity of the previous stimulus in a prompted modality. The sequences were based on a probabilistic model, defining transition probabilities such that, for each modality, stimuli were more likely to repeat (p = .825) than change (p = .175) and stimulus intensities were equiprobable (p = .5). Moreover, each transition was conditional on the configuration of the other two modalities comprising global (cross-modal) predictive properties of the sequences. We identified a shared mismatch network of modality general inferior frontal and temporo-parietal areas as well as sensory areas, where the connectivity (psychophysiological interaction) between these regions was modulated during mismatch processing. Further, we found deviant responses within the network to be modulated by local stimulus repetition, which suggests highly comparable processing of expectation violation across modalities. Moreover, hierarchically higher regions of the mismatch network in the temporo-parietal area around the intraparietal sulcus were identified to signal cross-modal expectation violation. With the consistency of MMRs across audition, somatosensation and vision, our study provides insights into a shared cortical network of uni- and multi-modal expectation violation in response to sequence regularities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Miro Grundei
- Neurocomputation and Neuroimaging UnitFreie Universität BerlinBerlinGermany
- Berlin School of Mind and BrainHumboldt Universität zu BerlinBerlinGermany
| | | | - Felix Blankenburg
- Neurocomputation and Neuroimaging UnitFreie Universität BerlinBerlinGermany
- Berlin School of Mind and BrainHumboldt Universität zu BerlinBerlinGermany
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Laura B, Maisto D, Pezzulo G. Modeling and controlling the body in maladaptive ways: an active inference perspective on non-suicidal self-injury behaviors. Neurosci Conscious 2023; 2023:niad025. [PMID: 38028726 PMCID: PMC10681710 DOI: 10.1093/nc/niad025] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/08/2023] [Revised: 10/12/2023] [Accepted: 11/08/2023] [Indexed: 12/01/2023] Open
Abstract
A significant number of persons engage in paradoxical behaviors, such as extreme food restriction (up to starvation) and non-suicidal self-injuries, especially during periods of rapid changes, such as adolescence. Here, we contextualize these and related paradoxical behavior within an active inference view of brain functions, which assumes that the brain forms predictive models of bodily variables, emotional experiences, and the embodied self and continuously strives to reduce the uncertainty of such models. We propose that not only in conditions of excessive or prolonged uncertainty, such as in clinical conditions, but also during pivotal periods of developmental transition, paradoxical behaviors might emerge as maladaptive strategies to reduce uncertainty-by "acting on the body"- soliciting salient perceptual and interoceptive sensations, such as pain or excessive levels of hunger. Although such strategies are maladaptive and run against our basic homeostatic imperatives, they might be functional not only to provide some short-term reward (e.g. relief from emotional distress)-as previously proposed-but also to reduce uncertainty and possibly to restore a coherent model of one's bodily experience and the self, affording greater confidence in who we are and what course of actions we should pursue.
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Affiliation(s)
- Barca Laura
- Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies, National Research Council, Via San Martino della Battaglia 44, Rome 00185, Italy
| | - Domenico Maisto
- Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies, National Research Council, Via San Martino della Battaglia 44, Rome 00185, Italy
| | - Giovani Pezzulo
- Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies, National Research Council, Via San Martino della Battaglia 44, Rome 00185, Italy
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Rapp L, Mai-Lippold SA, Georgiou E, Pollatos O. Elevated EEG heartbeat-evoked potentials in adolescents with more ADHD symptoms. Biol Psychol 2023; 184:108698. [PMID: 37775030 DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2023.108698] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/26/2023] [Revised: 09/23/2023] [Accepted: 09/25/2023] [Indexed: 10/01/2023]
Abstract
INTRODUCTION Symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are associated with a variety of mental abnormalities, but little is known about the perception and processing of internal signals, i.e., interoception, in individuals with ADHD symptoms. This study aimed to investigate the association between ADHD symptoms and the heartbeat-evoked potential (HEP), known as a neural correlate of automatic interoceptive processing of cardiac signals, in adolescents. METHODS HEPs of 47 healthy adolescent participants (53.2 % female) with a mean age of 14.29 years were measured during an emotional face recognition task. In addition, participants completed a self-report screening for ADHD symptoms. RESULTS ADHD symptoms were positively related to the HEP activity during the task in three of eight EEG sectors in the left hemisphere, as well as in all sectors in the right hemisphere. DISCUSSION This study is the first to demonstrate preliminary a relationship between the strength of HEP activity and ADHD symptoms in awake subjects. This finding of higher HEP amplitudes in subjects with more ADHD symptoms can be interpreted in terms of (i) increased arousal, (ii) altered neural processing of internal processes in an emotion-relevant task, and (iii) a misaligned precision-weighting process of task-irrelevant stimuli according to the predictive coding framework. These different interpretations could be reflected by previous studies showing heterogeneity of psychological deficits in individuals with ADHD symptoms. However, the generalizability to patients with diagnosed ADHD is limited due to the measurement tool for ADHD symptoms and the sample characteristics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lorenz Rapp
- Department of Clinical and Health Psychology, Institute of Psychology and Education, Ulm University, Albert-Einstein-Allee 47, 89069 Ulm, Germany.
| | - Sandra A Mai-Lippold
- Department of Clinical and Health Psychology, Institute of Psychology and Education, Ulm University, Albert-Einstein-Allee 47, 89069 Ulm, Germany
| | - Eleana Georgiou
- Department of Clinical and Health Psychology, Institute of Psychology and Education, Ulm University, Albert-Einstein-Allee 47, 89069 Ulm, Germany
| | - Olga Pollatos
- Department of Clinical and Health Psychology, Institute of Psychology and Education, Ulm University, Albert-Einstein-Allee 47, 89069 Ulm, Germany
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Yamagata T, Ichikawa K, Mizutori S, Haruki Y, Ogawa K. Revisiting the relationship between illusory hand ownership induced by visuotactile synchrony and cardiac interoceptive accuracy. Sci Rep 2023; 13:17132. [PMID: 37816882 PMCID: PMC10564882 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-43990-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/01/2023] [Accepted: 10/01/2023] [Indexed: 10/12/2023] Open
Abstract
Multisensory integration plays an important role in the experience of the bodily self. Recently, the relationship between exteroception and interoception has been actively debated. The first evidence was a report that the susceptibility of the sense of ownership over a fake hand (i.e., illusory hand ownership: IHO) in the typical rubber hand illusion is negatively modulated by the accuracy of the heartbeat perception (i.e., cardiac interoceptive accuracy: CIA). If reliable, this would suggest an antagonism between the exteroceptive and interoceptive cues underlying the bodily self. However, some inconsistent data have been reported, raising questions about the robustness of the initial evidence. To investigate this robustness, we estimated the extent of the modulatory effect of CIA on IHO susceptibility by applying Bayesian hierarchical modeling to two independent datasets. Overall, our results did not support that IHO susceptibility is modulated by CIA. The present estimates with high uncertainty cannot exclude the hypothesis that the relationship between IHO susceptibility and CIA is so weak as to be negligible. Further studies with larger sample sizes are needed to reach a conclusion about the extent of the modulatory effect. These findings highlight the lack of robustness of key evidence supporting the "antagonism hypothesis".
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Affiliation(s)
- Toyoki Yamagata
- Department of Psychology, Hokkaido University, Kita 10, Nishi 7, Kita-Ku, Sapporo, 060-0810, Japan.
| | - Kaito Ichikawa
- Department of Psychology, Hokkaido University, Kita 10, Nishi 7, Kita-Ku, Sapporo, 060-0810, Japan
| | - Shogo Mizutori
- Department of Behavioral Science, Hokkaido University, Hokkaido University, Kita 10, Nishi 7, Kita-Ku, Sapporo, 060-0810, Japan
| | - Yusuke Haruki
- Department of Psychology, Hokkaido University, Kita 10, Nishi 7, Kita-Ku, Sapporo, 060-0810, Japan
| | - Kenji Ogawa
- Department of Psychology, Hokkaido University, Kita 10, Nishi 7, Kita-Ku, Sapporo, 060-0810, Japan.
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Peiffer C. Puzzled by dysfunctional breathing disorder(s)? Consider the Bayesian brain hypothesis! Front Neurosci 2023; 17:1270556. [PMID: 37877012 PMCID: PMC10593455 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2023.1270556] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/31/2023] [Accepted: 09/14/2023] [Indexed: 10/26/2023] Open
Abstract
There is currently growing clinical concern regarding dysfunctional breathing disorder(s) (DBD), an umbrella term for a set of multidimensional clinical conditions that are characterized by altered breathing pattern associated with a variety of intermittent or chronic symptoms, notably dyspnea, in the absence or in excess of, organic disease. However, several aspects of DBD remain poorly understood and/or open to debate, especially the inconsistent relationship between the array of experienced symptoms and their supposedly underlying mechanisms. This may be partly due to a more general problem, i.e., the prevailing way we conceptualize symptoms. In the present article, after a brief review of the different aspects of DBD from the current perspective, I submit a call for considering DBD under the innovating perspective of the Bayesian brain hypothesis, i.e., a potent and novel model that fundamentally changes our views on symptom perception.
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Affiliation(s)
- Claudine Peiffer
- Dyspnea Clinic, Department of Physiology, University Children Hospital Robert Debré (AP-HP), Paris, France
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Penaud S, Yeh D, Gaston-Bellegarde A, Piolino P. The role of bodily self-consciousness in episodic memory of naturalistic events: an immersive virtual reality study. Sci Rep 2023; 13:17013. [PMID: 37813899 PMCID: PMC10562507 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-43823-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/10/2023] [Accepted: 09/28/2023] [Indexed: 10/11/2023] Open
Abstract
Recent studies suggest that the human body plays a critical role in episodic memory. Still, the precise relationship between bodily self-consciousness (BSC) and memory formation of specific events, especially in real-life contexts, remains a topic of ongoing research. The present study investigated the relationship between BSC and episodic memory (EM) using immersive virtual reality (VR) technology. Participants were immersed in an urban environment with naturalistic events, while their visuomotor feedback was manipulated in three within-subjects conditions: Synchronous, Asynchronous, and No-body. Our results show that asynchronous visuomotor feedback and not seeing one's body, compared to synchronous feedback, decrease the sense of self-identification, self-location and agency, and sense of presence. Moreover, navigating in the Asynchronous condition had a detrimental impact on incidental event memory, perceptual details, contextual association, subjective sense of remembering, and memory consolidation. In contrast, participants in the No-Body condition were only impaired in egocentric spatial memory and the sense of remembering at ten-day delay. We discuss these findings in relation to the role of bodily self-representation in space during event memory encoding. This study sheds light on the complex interplay between BSC, sense of presence, and episodic memory processes, and strengthens the potential of embodiment and VR technology in studying and enhancing human cognition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sylvain Penaud
- Université Paris Cité, Laboratoire Mémoire, Cerveau & Cognition (LMC2 UR 7536), Institut de Psychologie, 71 Ave Édouard Vaillant, 92100, Boulogne-Billancourt, France.
| | - Delphine Yeh
- Université Paris Cité, Laboratoire Mémoire, Cerveau & Cognition (LMC2 UR 7536), Institut de Psychologie, 71 Ave Édouard Vaillant, 92100, Boulogne-Billancourt, France
| | - Alexandre Gaston-Bellegarde
- Université Paris Cité, Laboratoire Mémoire, Cerveau & Cognition (LMC2 UR 7536), Institut de Psychologie, 71 Ave Édouard Vaillant, 92100, Boulogne-Billancourt, France
| | - Pascale Piolino
- Université Paris Cité, Laboratoire Mémoire, Cerveau & Cognition (LMC2 UR 7536), Institut de Psychologie, 71 Ave Édouard Vaillant, 92100, Boulogne-Billancourt, France.
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Rudrauf D, Sergeant-Perthuis G, Tisserand Y, Poloudenny G, Williford K, Amorim MA. The Projective Consciousness Model: Projective Geometry at the Core of Consciousness and the Integration of Perception, Imagination, Motivation, Emotion, Social Cognition and Action. Brain Sci 2023; 13:1435. [PMID: 37891803 PMCID: PMC10605889 DOI: 10.3390/brainsci13101435] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/09/2023] [Revised: 09/04/2023] [Accepted: 09/05/2023] [Indexed: 10/29/2023] Open
Abstract
Consciousness has been described as acting as a global workspace that integrates perception, imagination, emotion and action programming for adaptive decision making. The mechanisms of this workspace and their relationships to the phenomenology of consciousness need to be further specified. Much research in this area has focused on the neural correlates of consciousness, but, arguably, computational modeling can better be used toward this aim. According to the Projective Consciousness Model (PCM), consciousness is structured as a viewpoint-organized, internal space, relying on 3D projective geometry and governed by the action of the Projective Group as part of a process of active inference. The geometry induces a group-structured subjective perspective on an encoded world model, enabling adaptive perspective taking in agents. Here, we review and discuss the PCM. We emphasize the role of projective mechanisms in perception and the appraisal of affective and epistemic values as tied to the motivation of action, under an optimization process of Free Energy minimization, or more generally stochastic optimal control. We discuss how these mechanisms enable us to model and simulate group-structured drives in the context of social cognition and to understand the mechanisms underpinning empathy, emotion expression and regulation, and approach-avoidance behaviors. We review previous results, drawing on applications in robotics and virtual humans. We briefly discuss future axes of research relating to applications of the model to simulation- and model-based behavioral science, geometrically structured artificial neural networks, the relevance of the approach for explainable AI and human-machine interactions, and the study of the neural correlates of consciousness.
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Affiliation(s)
- David Rudrauf
- CIAMS, Université Paris-Saclay, 91405 Orsay, France;
- CIAMS, Université d’Orléans, 45067 Orléans, France
| | - Grégoire Sergeant-Perthuis
- Laboratoire de Biologie Computationnelle et Quantitative (LCQB), CNRS, IBPS, UMR 7238, Sorbonne Université, 75005 Paris, France;
- IMJ-PRG, Inria Paris-Ouragan Project-Team, Sorbonne University, 75005 Paris, France
| | | | - Germain Poloudenny
- Laboratoire de Mathématiques de Lens (LML), UR 2462, Université d’Artois, 62300 Lens, France;
| | - Kenneth Williford
- Philosophy and Humanities, University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, TX 76019, USA;
| | - Michel-Ange Amorim
- CIAMS, Université Paris-Saclay, 91405 Orsay, France;
- CIAMS, Université d’Orléans, 45067 Orléans, France
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Masumori A, Ikegami T. Spiking neural networks produce informational closure by stimulus avoidance. Biosystems 2023; 232:104972. [PMID: 37473956 DOI: 10.1016/j.biosystems.2023.104972] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/16/2022] [Revised: 07/04/2023] [Accepted: 07/06/2023] [Indexed: 07/22/2023]
Abstract
The concept of Learning by Stimulus Avoidance (LSA) has been proposed in recent literature, and the methods of avoiding stimuli: action, prediction, and separation appear to align well with the formation of Bertschinger's informational closure. In this study, we provide experimental evidence demonstrating that spiking neural networks, which avoid stimuli, can indeed facilitate the emergence of informational closure. The established link between LSA and informational closure lays the foundation for further exploration of autopoietic relationships and the self-organization of closure within neural networks.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Takashi Ikegami
- The University of Tokyo, Japan; Alternative Machine Inc, Japan
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Engelen T, Solcà M, Tallon-Baudry C. Interoceptive rhythms in the brain. Nat Neurosci 2023; 26:1670-1684. [PMID: 37697110 DOI: 10.1038/s41593-023-01425-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/08/2022] [Accepted: 08/08/2023] [Indexed: 09/13/2023]
Abstract
Sensing internal bodily signals, or interoception, is fundamental to maintain life. However, interoception should not be viewed as an isolated domain, as it interacts with exteroception, cognition and action to ensure the integrity of the organism. Focusing on cardiac, respiratory and gastric rhythms, we review evidence that interoception is anatomically and functionally intertwined with the processing of signals from the external environment. Interactions arise at all stages, from the peripheral transduction of interoceptive signals to sensory processing and cortical integration, in a network that extends beyond core interoceptive regions. Interoceptive rhythms contribute to functions ranging from perceptual detection up to sense of self, or conversely compete with external inputs. Renewed interest in interoception revives long-standing issues on how the brain integrates and coordinates information in distributed regions, by means of oscillatory synchrony, predictive coding or multisensory integration. Considering interoception and exteroception in the same framework paves the way for biological modes of information processing specific to living organisms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tahnée Engelen
- Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience Laboratory, Inserm, Ecole Normale Supérieure PSL University, Paris, France
| | - Marco Solcà
- Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience Laboratory, Inserm, Ecole Normale Supérieure PSL University, Paris, France
| | - Catherine Tallon-Baudry
- Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience Laboratory, Inserm, Ecole Normale Supérieure PSL University, Paris, France.
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Sanfey J. Simultaneity of consciousness with physical reality: the key that unlocks the mind-matter problem. Front Psychol 2023; 14:1173653. [PMID: 37842692 PMCID: PMC10568466 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1173653] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/24/2023] [Accepted: 09/12/2023] [Indexed: 10/17/2023] Open
Abstract
The problem of explaining the relationship between subjective experience and physical reality remains difficult and unresolved. In most explanations, consciousness is epiphenomenal, without causal power. The most notable exception is Integrated Information Theory (IIT), which provides a causal explanation for consciousness. However, IIT relies on an identity between subjectivity and a particular type of physical structure, namely with an information structure that has intrinsic causal power greater than the sum of its parts. Any theory that relies on a psycho-phyiscal identity must eventually appeal to panpsychism, which undermines that theory's claim to be fundamental. IIT has recently pivoted towards a strong version of causal emergence, but macroscopic structures cannot be stronger causally than their microphysical parts without some new physical law or governing principle. The approach taken here is designed to uncover such a principle. The decisive argument is entirely deductive from initial premises that are phenomenologically certain. If correct, the arguments prove that conscious experience is sufficient to create additional degrees of causal freedom independently of the content of experience, and in a manner that is unpredictable and unobservable by any temporally sequential means. This provides a fundamental principle about consciousness, and a conceptual bridge between it and the physics describing what is experienced. The principle makes testable predictions about brain function, with notable differences from IIT, some of which are also empirically testable.
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Zaidel A, Salomon R. Multisensory decisions from self to world. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2023; 378:20220335. [PMID: 37545311 PMCID: PMC10404927 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2022.0335] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/15/2023] [Accepted: 06/19/2023] [Indexed: 08/08/2023] Open
Abstract
Classic Bayesian models of perceptual inference describe how an ideal observer would integrate 'unisensory' measurements (multisensory integration) and attribute sensory signals to their origin(s) (causal inference). However, in the brain, sensory signals are always received in the context of a multisensory bodily state-namely, in combination with other senses. Moreover, sensory signals from both interoceptive sensing of one's own body and exteroceptive sensing of the world are highly interdependent and never occur in isolation. Thus, the observer must fundamentally determine whether each sensory observation is from an external (versus internal, self-generated) source to even be considered for integration. Critically, solving this primary causal inference problem requires knowledge of multisensory and sensorimotor dependencies. Thus, multisensory processing is needed to separate sensory signals. These multisensory processes enable us to simultaneously form a sense of self and form distinct perceptual decisions about the external world. In this opinion paper, we review and discuss the similarities and distinctions between multisensory decisions underlying the sense of self and those directed at acquiring information about the world. We call attention to the fact that heterogeneous multisensory processes take place all along the neural hierarchy (even in forming 'unisensory' observations) and argue that more integration of these aspects, in theory and experiment, is required to obtain a more comprehensive understanding of multisensory brain function. This article is part of the theme issue 'Decision and control processes in multisensory perception'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Adam Zaidel
- Gonda Multidisciplinary Brain Research Center, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan 5290002, Israel
| | - Roy Salomon
- Gonda Multidisciplinary Brain Research Center, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan 5290002, Israel
- Department of Cognitive Sciences, University of Haifa, Mount Carmel, Haifa 3498838, Israel
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Corcoran AW, Perrykkad K, Feuerriegel D, Robinson JE. Body as First Teacher: The Role of Rhythmic Visceral Dynamics in Early Cognitive Development. PERSPECTIVES ON PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE 2023:17456916231185343. [PMID: 37694720 DOI: 10.1177/17456916231185343] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 09/12/2023]
Abstract
Embodied cognition-the idea that mental states and processes should be understood in relation to one's bodily constitution and interactions with the world-remains a controversial topic within cognitive science. Recently, however, increasing interest in predictive processing theories among proponents and critics of embodiment alike has raised hopes of a reconciliation. This article sets out to appraise the unificatory potential of predictive processing, focusing in particular on embodied formulations of active inference. Our analysis suggests that most active-inference accounts invoke weak, potentially trivial conceptions of embodiment; those making stronger claims do so independently of the theoretical commitments of the active-inference framework. We argue that a more compelling version of embodied active inference can be motivated by adopting a diachronic perspective on the way rhythmic physiological activity shapes neural development in utero. According to this visceral afferent training hypothesis, early-emerging physiological processes are essential not only for supporting the biophysical development of neural structures but also for configuring the cognitive architecture those structures entail. Focusing in particular on the cardiovascular system, we propose three candidate mechanisms through which visceral afferent training might operate: (a) activity-dependent neuronal development, (b) periodic signal modeling, and (c) oscillatory network coordination.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrew W Corcoran
- Monash Centre for Consciousness and Contemplative Studies, Monash University
- Cognition and Philosophy Laboratory, School of Philosophical, Historical, and International Studies, Monash University
| | - Kelsey Perrykkad
- Cognition and Philosophy Laboratory, School of Philosophical, Historical, and International Studies, Monash University
| | | | - Jonathan E Robinson
- Cognition and Philosophy Laboratory, School of Philosophical, Historical, and International Studies, Monash University
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Picard F. Ecstatic or Mystical Experience through Epilepsy. J Cogn Neurosci 2023; 35:1372-1381. [PMID: 37432752 PMCID: PMC10513764 DOI: 10.1162/jocn_a_02031] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 07/12/2023]
Abstract
Ecstatic epilepsy is a rare form of focal epilepsy, so named because the seizures' first symptoms consist of an ecstatic/mystical experience, including feelings of increased self-awareness, mental clarity, and "unity with everything that exists," accompanied by a sense of bliss and physical well-being. In this perspective article, we first describe the phenomenology of ecstatic seizures, address their historical context, and describe the primary brain structure involved in the genesis of these peculiar epileptic seizures, the anterior insula. In the second part of the article, we move onto the possible neurocognitive underpinnings of ecstatic seizures. We first remind the reader of the insula's role in interoceptive processing and consciously experienced feelings, contextualized by the theory of predictive coding. This leads us to hypothesize that temporary disruptions to activity in the anterior insula could interrupt the generation of interoceptive prediction errors, and cause one to experience the absence of uncertainty, and thereby, a sense of bliss. The absence of interoceptive prediction errors would in fact mimic perfect prediction of the body's physiological state. This sudden clarity of bodily perception could explain the ecstatic quality of the experience, as the interoceptive system forms the basis for unified conscious experience. Our alternative hypothesis is that the anterior insula plays an overarching role in the processing of surprise and that the dysfunction caused by the epileptic discharge could interrupt any surprise exceeding expectations, resulting in a sense of complete control and oneness with the environment.
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Elkommos S, Martin-Lopez D, Koreki A, Jolliffe C, Kandasamy R, Mula M, Critchley HD, Edwards MJ, Garfinkel S, Richardson MP, Yogarajah M. Changes in the heartbeat-evoked potential are associated with functional seizures. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 2023; 94:769-775. [PMID: 37230745 DOI: 10.1136/jnnp-2022-330167] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/17/2022] [Accepted: 04/05/2023] [Indexed: 05/27/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Patients with functional seizures (FS) can experience dissociation (depersonalisation) before their seizures. Depersonalisation reflects disembodiment, which may be related to changes in interoceptive processing. The heartbeat-evoked potential (HEP) is an electroencephalogram (EEG) marker of interoceptive processing. AIM To assess whether alterations in interoceptive processing indexed by HEP occur prior to FS and compare this with epileptic seizures (ES). METHODS HEP amplitudes were calculated from EEG during video-EEG monitoring in 25 patients with FS and 19 patients with ES, and were compared between interictal and preictal states. HEP amplitude difference was calculated as preictal HEP amplitude minus interictal HEP amplitude. A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was used to evaluate the diagnostic performance of HEP amplitude difference in discriminating FS from ES. RESULTS The FS group demonstrated a significant reduction in HEP amplitude between interictal and preictal states at F8 (effect size rB=0.612, false discovery rate (FDR)-corrected q=0.030) and C4 (rB=0.600, FDR-corrected q=0.035). No differences in HEP amplitude were found between states in the ES group. Between diagnostic groups, HEP amplitude difference differed between the FS and ES groups at F8 (rB=0.423, FDR-corrected q=0.085) and C4 (rB=0.457, FDR-corrected q=0.085). Using HEP amplitude difference at frontal and central electrodes plus sex, we found that the ROC curve demonstrated an area under the curve of 0.893, with sensitivity=0.840 and specificity=0.842. CONCLUSION Our data support the notion that aberrant interoception occurs prior to FS. Changes in HEP amplitude may reflect a neurophysiological biomarker of FS and may have diagnostic utility in differentiating FS and ES.
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Affiliation(s)
- Samia Elkommos
- School of Neuroscience, King's College London Institute of Psychiatry Psychology and Neuroscience, London, UK
- Epilepsy Group, St George's Hospital Atkinson Morley Regional Neuroscience Centre, London, UK
| | - David Martin-Lopez
- Clinical Neurophysiology, St George's Hospital Atkinson Morley Regional Neuroscience Centre, London, UK
| | - Akihiro Koreki
- Psychiatry, National Hospital Organisation Shimofusa Psychiatric Medical Center, Chiba, Japan
- Neuroscience Research Centre, St George's University of London, London, UK
| | - Claire Jolliffe
- Clinical Neurophysiology, St George's Hospital Atkinson Morley Regional Neuroscience Centre, London, UK
| | - Rohan Kandasamy
- Clinical Neurophysiology, National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, London, UK
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Epilepsy, University College London, London, UK
| | - Marco Mula
- Epilepsy Group, St George's Hospital Atkinson Morley Regional Neuroscience Centre, London, UK
- Institute of Medical and Biomedical Education, St George's University of London, London, UK
| | - Hugo D Critchley
- Neuroscience, Brighton and Sussex Medical School, Brighton, UK
- Research and Development, Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, Worthing, UK
| | - Mark J Edwards
- Centre for Clinical Neuroscience, St George's University of London, London, UK
- Atkinson Morley Regional Neuroscience Centre, St George's Hospital, London, UK
| | - Sarah Garfinkel
- Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, London, UK
| | - Mark P Richardson
- School of Neuroscience, King's College London Institute of Psychiatry Psychology and Neuroscience, London, UK
- Centre for Epilepsy, King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK
| | - Mahinda Yogarajah
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Epilepsy, University College London, London, UK
- Neurology, National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, London, UK
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Shaffer C, Barrett LF, Quigley KS. Signal processing in the vagus nerve: Hypotheses based on new genetic and anatomical evidence. Biol Psychol 2023; 182:108626. [PMID: 37419401 PMCID: PMC10563766 DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2023.108626] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/09/2023] [Revised: 06/25/2023] [Accepted: 07/03/2023] [Indexed: 07/09/2023]
Abstract
Each organism must regulate its internal state in a metabolically efficient way as it interacts in space and time with an ever-changing and only partly predictable world. Success in this endeavor is largely determined by the ongoing communication between brain and body, and the vagus nerve is a crucial structure in that dialogue. In this review, we introduce the novel hypothesis that the afferent vagus nerve is engaged in signal processing rather than just signal relay. New genetic and structural evidence of vagal afferent fiber anatomy motivates two hypotheses: (1) that sensory signals informing on the physiological state of the body compute both spatial and temporal viscerosensory features as they ascend the vagus nerve, following patterns found in other sensory architectures, such as the visual and olfactory systems; and (2) that ascending and descending signals modulate one another, calling into question the strict segregation of sensory and motor signals, respectively. Finally, we discuss several implications of our two hypotheses for understanding the role of viscerosensory signal processing in predictive energy regulation (i.e., allostasis) as well as the role of metabolic signals in memory and in disorders of prediction (e.g., mood disorders).
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Affiliation(s)
- Clare Shaffer
- Department of Psychology, College of Science, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA.
| | - Lisa Feldman Barrett
- Department of Psychology, College of Science, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA; Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA, USA
| | - Karen S Quigley
- Department of Psychology, College of Science, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA.
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Giotakos O. Modeling intentionality in the human brain. Front Psychiatry 2023; 14:1163421. [PMID: 37621971 PMCID: PMC10445144 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1163421] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/10/2023] [Accepted: 07/24/2023] [Indexed: 08/26/2023] Open
Abstract
This paper is focusing on a rather neglected issue that concerns both aspects of philosophy and neurobiology in relation to the concept of intentionality. Intentionality is concerned with the 'directedness' or 'aboutness' of mental phenomena towards an object. Despite the fact that in philosophy both concepts of aboutness and directedness are conceptually identical with intentionality, a careful neuroscientific approach can demonstrate that these two phenomena represent two distinct conceptual and neurobiological aspects of intentionality with complementary functions. We described the interaction between a series of intentionality and pathogenetic psychobiological factors, the corresponding brain topography, and the resulting clinical manifestation and psychopathology. A permanent failure of intentionality dominates in psychosis, which includes an inappropriateness of the intentional object or connection, from the outset, or even from the prodromal phase of the disorder. Affective disorders may result from imprecise interoceptive prediction error signals, due to a confused identification of the intentional object. In suicidal patients there is an emotional intentionality failure, characterized by an absence of intentional object or a loss of conscious access to normal intentional objects. We may model an 'intentional system' as a higher order system, with a monitoring and regulatory role attributed to the brain and behavior. Also, we may consider mental disorders as the result of a radical disruption of intentionality, due to an inappropriateness or lack of the intentional object or due to an inappropriate connection in some points of the suggested brain pathways of intentionality.
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50
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Fischman L. Touching and being touched: where knowing and feeling meet. Front Psychol 2023; 14:1097402. [PMID: 37533722 PMCID: PMC10393247 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1097402] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/13/2022] [Accepted: 06/05/2023] [Indexed: 08/04/2023] Open
Abstract
Philosophers maintain that touch confers a sense of reality or grounding to perceptual experience. In touching oneself, one is simultaneously both subject and object of touch, a template for experiencing oneself as subject and object of intentions, feelings, and motivations, or intersubjectivity. Here, I explore a form of self-touch carefully documented by Winnicott in observing how the infant engages the transitional object. I compare the processes of self-loss in transitional states, including absorption in art, empathic immersion, drug-induced ego dissolution, and depersonalization. I use examples drawn from Rodin, Dante, and the Beatles; research correlating neurophysiological findings with aspects of self-representation; predictive processing-based models; Hohwy's concepts of minimal and narrative self; Clark's notion of the extended mind; and phenomenological perspectives on touch, to postulate a role for self-touch in the pre-reflective sense of mine-ness, or grounding, in transitional states.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lawrence Fischman
- Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Tufts University, Boston, MA, United States
- Fluence, Woodstock, NY, United States
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