Interoceptive inference, emotion, and the embodied self.

By Anil K. Seth. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 2013

1,547 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The concept of the brain as a prediction machine has enjoyed a resurgence in the context of the Bayesian brain and predictive coding approaches within cognitive science. To date, this perspective has been applied primarily to exteroceptive perception (e.g., vision, audition), and action. Here, I describe a predictive, inferential perspective on interoception: 'interoceptive inference' conceives of subjective feeling states (emotions) as arising from actively-inferred generative (predictive) models of the causes of interoceptive afferents. The model generalizes 'appraisal' theories that view emotions as emerging from cognitive evaluations of physiological changes, and it sheds new light on the neurocognitive mechanisms that underlie the experience of body ownership and conscious selfhood in health and in neuropsychiatric illness.

Subfields: Cognitive Neuroscience, Psychiatry and Mental health, Social Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/b5f2758cfcde40a148fce033eee1123ff9ff3581

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Citations in the corpus

From cognitivism to autopoiesis: towards a computational framework for the embodied mind (2016, background): “This proposed role for the insula as a core module in the interoceptive hierarchy is a key motif appearing in a variety of related approaches (Barrett and Simmons 2015; Gu et al. 2013; Seth 2013).”
Busting Out: Predictive Brains, Embodied Minds, and the Puzzle of the Evidentiary Veil (2017, background): “Exposed to certain streams of proprioceptive and interoceptive information, they might (Seth, 2013) learn about the shapes, structures, and 3 capabilities of their own bodies.”
Real Virtuality: A Code of Ethical Conduct. Recommendations for Good Scientific Practice and the Consumers of VR-Technology (2016, background): “In addition to visual and tactile signals, recent work suggests that manipulations of interoceptive signals, such as heartbeat, can also influence our experience of embodiment (Aspell et al., 2013; Seth, 2013).”
The theory of constructed emotion: an active inference account of interoception and categorization (2017, positive): “This hypothesis is variously called predictive coding, active inference, or belief propagation (e.g. Rao and Ballard, 1999; Friston, 2010; Seth et al., 2012; Clark, 2013a,b; Hohwy, 2013; Seth, 2013; Barrett and Simmons, 2015; Chanes and Barrett, 2016; Deneve and Jardri, 2016).”
Affective Value in the Predictive Mind (2017, background): “So, while we agree with the models by Seth (Seth 2013), Gu, Hof, Friston & Fan (Gu et al. 2013) or by Barrett & Simmons (Barrett and Simmons 2015) that hold that emotions have to do with somatovisceral prediction errors, we stress that those accounts may not sufficiently explain the causes of emotio”
Active Inference: A Process Theory (2017, background): “At the same time, there has been a resurgence of enactivism; emphasizing the embodied aspect of perception (O’Regan & No¨e, 2001; Friston, Mattout, & Kilner, 2011; Ballard, Kit, Rothkopf,&Sullivan,2013;Clark,2013;Seth,2013;Barrett&Simmons,2015; Pezzulo,Rigoli,&Friston,2015).”
Active interoceptive inference and the emotional brain (2016, background): “Crucially, interoceptive inference augments appraisal theories with the concept of active inference, by which interoceptive predictions can perform physiological homeostasis by enlisting autonomic reflexes (10, 13) More specifically, descending predictions provide a homoeostatic set point against wh”
How to Knit Your Own Markov Blanket (2017, background): “Our own facial expressions (like our own visceral states – see Seth 2013, Pezzulo 2014) simply constitute further sensory evidence www.predictive-mind.net that helps drive the Bayesian machine more rapidly towards conclusions – here, conclusions concerning the meanings of the words on the screen.”
Interoception and emotion. (2017, background): “Efferent autonomic responses can thus be viewed as descending ‘interoceptive predictions’ through their effects on peripheral physiology [3,43,44,45 ,46].”
Understanding the neural bases of bodily self-consciousness: recent achievements and main challenges (2023, background): “There is also evidence that interoceptive signals contribute to BSC (Aspell et al., 2013; Seth, 2013).”
Neural bases of the bodily self as revealed by electrical brain stimulation: A systematic review (2023, background): “…related to the sense of self in functional neuroimaging in healthy participants or in brain lesion studies (Berlucchi & Aglioti, 2010; Blanke, 2012; Blanke & Metzinger, 2009; Lenggenhager & Lopez, 2015; Park & Blanke, 2019; Serino et al., 2013; Seth, 2013; Tsakiris, 2010; Vogeley & Fink, 2003).”