scholarly journals Whatever next? Predictive brains, situated agents, and the future of cognitive science

2013 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 181-204 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andy Clark
Keyword(s):  
Prediction Error ◽  
Functional Role ◽  
Perception And Action ◽  
Cortical Processing ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Special Contribution ◽  
Sensory Inputs ◽  
Target Article ◽  
Science Of Mind

AbstractBrains, it has recently been argued, are essentially prediction machines. They are bundles of cells that support perception and action by constantly attempting to match incoming sensory inputs with top-down expectations or predictions. This is achieved using a hierarchical generative model that aims to minimize prediction error within a bidirectional cascade of cortical processing. Such accounts offer a unifying model of perception and action, illuminate the functional role of attention, and may neatly capture the special contribution of cortical processing to adaptive success. This target article critically examines this “hierarchical prediction machine” approach, concluding that it offers the best clue yet to the shape of a unified science of mind and action. Sections 1 and 2 lay out the key elements and implications of the approach. Section 3 explores a variety of pitfalls and challenges, spanning the evidential, the methodological, and the more properly conceptual. The paper ends (sections 4 and 5) by asking how such approaches might impact our more general vision of mind, experience, and agency.

scholarly journals The future of SIMS: Who embodies which smile and when?

2010 ◽  
Vol 33 (6) ◽  
pp. 464-480 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paula M. Niedenthal ◽  
Martial Mermillod ◽  
Marcus Maringer ◽  
Ursula Hess
Keyword(s):  
Facial Expression ◽  
Eye Contact ◽  
Initial Position ◽  
Top Down ◽  
The Core ◽  
Facial Expression Of Emotion ◽  
Expression Of Emotion ◽  
Target Article ◽  
The Future

AbstractThe set of 30 stimulating commentaries on our target article helps to define the areas of our initial position that should be reiterated or else made clearer and, more importantly, the ways in which moderators of and extensions to the SIMS can be imagined. In our response, we divide the areas of discussion into (1) a clarification of our meaning of “functional,” (2) a consideration of our proposed categories of smiles, (3) a reminder about the role of top-down processes in the interpretation of smile meaning in SIMS, (4) an evaluation of the role of eye contact in the interpretation of facial expression of emotion, and (5) an assessment of the possible moderators of the core SIMS model. We end with an appreciation of the proposed extensions to the model, and note that the future of research on the problem of the smile appears to us to be assured.

Sensory regulation of quadrupedal locomotion: a top-down or bottom-up control system?

2012 ◽  
Vol 108 (3) ◽  
pp. 709-711 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yann Thibaudier ◽  
Marie-France Hurteau
Keyword(s):  
Control System ◽  
Central Pattern Generators ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Sensory Inputs ◽  
Sensory Regulation ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Pattern Generators

Propriospinal pathways are thought to be critical for quadrupedal coordination by coupling cervical and lumbar central pattern generators (CPGs). However, the mechanisms involved in relaying information between girdles remain largely unexplored. Using an in vitro spinal cord preparation in neonatal rats, Juvin and colleagues ( Juvin et al. 2012 ) have recently shown sensory inputs from the hindlimbs have greater influence on forelimb CPGs than forelimb sensory inputs on hindlimb CPGs, in other words, a bottom-up control system. However, results from decerebrate cats suggest a top-down control system. It may be that both bottom-up and top-down control systems exist and that the dominance of one over the other is task or context dependent. As such, the role of sensory inputs in controlling quadrupedal coordination before and after injury requires further investigation.

scholarly journals Event-related potentials reflect prediction errors and pop-out during comprehension of degraded speech

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Leah Banellis ◽  
Rodika Sokoliuk ◽  
Conor J Wild ◽  
Howard Bowman ◽  
Damian Cruse
Keyword(s):  
Prediction Error ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Prediction Errors ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Degraded Speech ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
Task Goals ◽  
Post Hoc

Abstract Comprehension of degraded speech requires higher-order expectations informed by prior knowledge. Accurate top-down expectations of incoming degraded speech cause a subjective semantic ‘pop-out’ or conscious breakthrough experience. Indeed, the same stimulus can be perceived as meaningless when no expectations are made in advance. We investigated the event-related potential (ERP) correlates of these top-down expectations, their error signals and the subjective pop-out experience in healthy participants. We manipulated expectations in a word-pair priming degraded (noise-vocoded) speech task and investigated the role of top-down expectation with a between-groups attention manipulation. Consistent with the role of expectations in comprehension, repetition priming significantly enhanced perceptual intelligibility of the noise-vocoded degraded targets for attentive participants. An early ERP was larger for mismatched (i.e. unexpected) targets than matched targets, indicative of an initial error signal not reliant on top-down expectations. Subsequently, a P3a-like ERP was larger to matched targets than mismatched targets only for attending participants—i.e. a pop-out effect—while a later ERP was larger for mismatched targets and did not significantly interact with attention. Rather than relying on complex post hoc interactions between prediction error and precision to explain this apredictive pattern, we consider our data to be consistent with prediction error minimization accounts for early stages of processing followed by Global Neuronal Workspace-like breakthrough and processing in service of task goals.

Vision and cognition: How do they connect?

1999 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 401-414 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zenon Pylyshyn
Keyword(s):  
Face Recognition ◽  
Early Vision ◽  
Top Down ◽  
General Shape ◽  
Significant Component ◽  
Visual Inputs ◽  
Target Article ◽  
Neurophysiological Data ◽  
High Level

The target article claimed that although visual apprehension involves all of general cognition, a significant component of vision (referred to as early vision) works independently of cognition and yet is able to provide a surprisingly high level interpretation of visual inputs, roughly up to identifying general shape-classes. The commentators were largely sympathetic, but frequently disagreed on how to draw the boundary, on exactly what early vision delivers, on the role that attention plays, and on how to interpret the neurophysiological data showing top-down effects. A significant number simply asserted that they were not willing to accept any distinction between vision and cognition, and a surprising number even felt that we could never tell for sure, so why bother? Among the topics covered was the relation of cognition and consciousness, the relation of early vision to other modules such as face recognition and language, and the role of natural constraints.

scholarly journals Bidirectional control of fear memories by cerebellar neurons projecting to the ventrolateral periaqueductal grey

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jimena Laura Frontera ◽  
Hind Baba Aissa ◽  
Romain William Sala ◽  
Caroline Mailhes-Hamon ◽  
Ioana Antoaneta Georgescu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Associative Learning ◽  
Prediction Error ◽  
Functional Role ◽  
Extinction Learning ◽  
Brain Areas ◽  
Periaqueductal Grey ◽  
Cerebellar Neurons ◽  
Emotional System

Abstract Fear conditioning is a form of associative learning that is known to involve different brain areas, notably the amygdala, the prefrontal cortex and the periaqueductal grey (PAG). Here, we describe the functional role of pathways that link the cerebellum with the fear network. We found that the cerebellar fastigial nucleus (FN) sends glutamatergic projections to vlPAG that synapse onto glutamatergic and GABAergic vlPAG neurons. Chemogenetic and optogenetic manipulations revealed that the FN-vlPAG pathway controls bi-directionally the strength of the fear memories, indicating an important role in the association of the conditioned and unconditioned stimuli, a function consistent with vlPAG encoding of fear prediction error. Moreover, FN-vlPAG projections also modulate extinction learning. We also found a FN-parafascicular thalamus pathway, which may relay cerebellar influence to the amygdala and modulates anxiety behaviors. Overall, our results reveal multiple contributions of the cerebellum to the emotional system.

scholarly journals Event-related potentials reflect prediction errors and pop-out during comprehension of degraded speech

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leah Banellis ◽  
Rodika Sokoliuk ◽  
Conor J Wild ◽  
Howard Bowman ◽  
Damian Cruse
Keyword(s):  
Prediction Error ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Prediction Errors ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Degraded Speech ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
Task Goals ◽  
Post Hoc ◽  
Made In

AbstractComprehension of degraded speech requires higher-order expectations informed by prior-knowledge. Accurate top-down expectations of incoming degraded speech cause a subjective semantic “pop-out” or conscious breakthrough experience. Indeed, the same stimulus can be perceived as meaningless when no expectations are made in advance. We investigated the ERP correlates of these top-down expectations, their error signals, and the subjective pop-out experience in healthy participants. We manipulated expectations in a word-pair priming noise-vocoded speech task and investigated the role of top-down expectation with a between-groups attention manipulation. Consistent with the role of expectations in comprehension, repetition priming significantly enhanced perceptual intelligibility of the noise-vocoded degraded targets for attentive participants. An early ERP was larger for mismatched (i.e. unexpected) targets than matched targets, indicative of an initial error signal not reliant on top-down expectations. Subsequently, a P3a-like ERP was larger to matched targets than mismatched targets only for attending participants - i.e. a pop-out effect. Rather than relying on complex post hoc interactions between prediction error and precision to explain this apredictive pattern, we consider our data to be consistent with prediction error minimisation accounts for early stages of processing followed by Global Neuronal Workspace-like breakthrough and processing in service of task goals.

scholarly journals Bidirectional control of fear memories by the cerebellum through the ventrolateral periaqueductal grey

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jimena L. Frontera ◽  
Hind Baba Aissa ◽  
Romain William Sala ◽  
Caroline Mailhes-Hamon ◽  
Ioana Antoaneta Georgescu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Prediction Error ◽  
Functional Role ◽  
Fear Memory ◽  
Brain Areas ◽  
Periaqueductal Grey ◽  
Parafascicular Nucleus ◽  
Emotional System ◽  
Anxiety And Fear ◽  
Fear Expression

AbstractFear conditioning is a form of associative learning that is known to involve brain areas, notably the amygdala, the prefrontal cortex and the periaqueductal grey (PAG). Here, we describe the functional role of pathways that link the cerebellum with the fear network. We found that the cerebellar fastigial nucleus (FN) sends glutamatergic projections to vlPAG that synapse onto glutamatergic and GABAergic vlPAG neurons. Chemogenetic and optogenetic manipulations revealed that the FN-vlPAG pathway controls bi-directionally the strength of the fear memory, indicating a role in the association of the conditioned and unconditioned stimuli, a function consistent with vlPAG encoding of fear prediction error. In addition, we found that a FN - thalamic parafascicular nucleus pathway, which may relay cerebellar influence to the amygdala, is involved in anxiety and fear expression but not in fear memory. Our results reveal the contributions to the emotional system of the cerebellum, which exerts a potent control on the strength of the fear memory through excitatory FN-vlPAG projections.

Choosing a Markov blanket

2020 ◽  
Vol 43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Parr
Keyword(s):  
Markov Blanket ◽  
Target Article ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract This commentary focuses upon the relationship between two themes in the target article: the ways in which a Markov blanket may be defined and the role of precision and salience in mediating the interactions between what is internal and external to a system. These each rest upon the different perspectives we might take while “choosing” a Markov blanket.

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