scholarly journals Balancing Prediction and Surprise: A Role for Active Sleep at the Dawn of Consciousness?

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew N. Van De Poll ◽  
Bruno van Swinderen
Keyword(s):  
Error Detection ◽  
Emotional Regulation ◽  
Cognitive Disorders ◽  
Emotional Dysregulation ◽  
Predictive Processing ◽  
Prediction Errors ◽  
Active Sleep ◽  
Evolution Of Consciousness ◽  
Negative Valence ◽  
The World

The brain is a prediction machine. Yet the world is never entirely predictable, for any animal. Unexpected events are surprising, and this typically evokes prediction error signatures in mammalian brains. In humans such mismatched expectations are often associated with an emotional response as well, and emotional dysregulation can lead to cognitive disorders such as depression or schizophrenia. Emotional responses are understood to be important for memory consolidation, suggesting that positive or negative ‘valence’ cues more generally constitute an ancient mechanism designed to potently refine and generalize internal models of the world and thereby minimize prediction errors. On the other hand, abolishing error detection and surprise entirely (as could happen by generalization or habituation) is probably maladaptive, as this might undermine the very mechanism that brains use to become better prediction machines. This paradoxical view of brain function as an ongoing balance between prediction and surprise suggests a compelling approach to study and understand the evolution of consciousness in animals. In particular, this view may provide insight into the function and evolution of ‘active’ sleep. Here, we propose that active sleep – when animals are behaviorally asleep but their brain seems awake – is widespread beyond mammals and birds, and may have evolved as a mechanism for optimizing predictive processing in motile creatures confronted with constantly changing environments. To explore our hypothesis, we progress from humans to invertebrates, investigating how a potential role for rapid eye movement (REM) sleep in emotional regulation in humans could be re-examined as a conserved sleep function that co-evolved alongside selective attention to maintain an adaptive balance between prediction and surprise. This view of active sleep has some interesting implications for the evolution of subjective awareness and consciousness in animals.

Yeats's Barfieldian Rebellion: Locating Yeats's Synthetic Symbolism in Barfield's Evolution of Consciousness

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-82
Author(s):  
Clayton McReynolds
Keyword(s):  
William Butler Yeats ◽  
Evolution Of Consciousness ◽  
The World

In this paper, I draw on Barfield's theory of the evolution of consciousness and language to argue that William Butler Yeats employs language in his poetry in a way which resembles the older, ‘organic’ poetry Barfield describes. I observe how Yeats's ‘concrete’ understanding allowed him to weave a rich web of meaning into his poetry without feeling confined by T.S. Eliot's ‘dissociation of sensibility’. Many of Yeats's Modernist contemporaries struggled to bridge a perceived gap between thought and feeling, but Yeats's view of the world as innately symbolic allowed him to use language both literally and symbolically at once, speaking simultaneously of a literal rock, a symbol for stasis, and an emblem of the idée fixe. Thus, Yeats creates, in Barfield's terms, ‘organic’ poetry where the multilayered meanings arise naturally from Yeats's understanding. I further note how Yeats attempts to create a mythology in A Vision that would function much as Barfield describes mythology operating in ancient, concrete societies. Through this study, I hope to illuminate both the interconnectedness of Yeats's symbolic metaphysic and poetic technique and the relevance of Barfield for understanding Yeats and, perhaps, other poets finding new ways to communicate through an evolving language.

scholarly journals Extending the extended consciousness debate: perception, imagination, and the common kind assumption

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Deery
Keyword(s):  
Perceptual Experience ◽  
Phenomenal Consciousness ◽  
Psychological Theory ◽  
Predictive Processing ◽  
Mental Event ◽  
The World ◽  
Predictive Approach ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Brain

AbstractFor some, the states and processes involved in the realisation of phenomenal consciousness are not confined to within the organismic boundaries of the experiencing subject. Instead, the sub-personal basis of perceptual experience can, and does, extend beyond the brain and body to implicate environmental elements through one’s interaction with the world. These claims are met by proponents of predictive processing, who propose that perception and imagination should be understood as a product of the same internal mechanisms. On this view, as visually imagining is not considered to be world-involving, it is assumed that world-involvement must not be essential for perception, and thus internalism about the sub-personal basis is true. However, the argument for internalism from the unity of perception and imagination relies for its strength on a questionable conception of the relationship between the two experiential states. I argue that proponents of the predictive approach are guilty of harbouring an implicit commitment to the common kind assumption which does not follow trivially from their framework. That is, the assumption that perception and imagination are of the same fundamental kind of mental event. I will argue that there are plausible alternative ways of conceiving of this relationship without drawing internalist metaphysical conclusions from their psychological theory. Thus, the internalist owes the debate clarification of this relationship and further argumentation to secure their position.

scholarly journals Profiles of Emotion Regulation and Post-Traumatic Stress Severity among Female Victims of Intimate Partner Violence

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (13) ◽  
pp. 6865
Author(s):  
Marina Muñoz-Rivas ◽  
Ana Bellot ◽  
Ignacio Montorio ◽  
Rosa Ronzón-Tirado ◽  
Natalia Redondo
Keyword(s):  
Intimate Partner Violence ◽  
Traumatic Stress ◽  
Partner Violence ◽  
Emotional Regulation ◽  
Intimate Partner ◽  
Emotional Dysregulation ◽  
Gender Violence ◽  
Post Traumatic Stress ◽  
Critical Pathway ◽  
Post Traumatic

Emotional dysregulation is a construct that has drawn substantial attention as a transdiagnostic contributing factor to the loss of health. Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a term used to describe physical, psychological, or sexual assault of a spouse or sexual partner. The aim of the study was to determine the variability of emotional dysregulation among women with different types of IPV revictimization and post-traumatic stress. The cross-sectional survey included 120 women attended by the Integrated Monitoring System of Gender Violence of Madrid, Spain, due to a gender violence complaint. The presence of post-traumatic stress disorder (DSM 5 criteria), emotional dysregulation (Emotional Processing Scale (EPS)), childhood trauma, and type of revictimization were evaluated. Cluster analysis found three profiles of emotional regulation: Emotionally Regulated, Avoidance/Non-Impoverished, and Emotional Overwhelm. The results showed that the Emotional Overwhelm group was characterized by a general dysregulation of emotional experiences and a greater intensity of post-traumatic stress symptoms. In addition, women who have suffered several episodes of IPV by different partners showed a differential pattern of emotional regulation than the rest of the victims that entailed greater psychopathology. Findings confirm that emotional dysregulation is a critical pathway to the decrease of health among IPV victims.

The Embodiment of Concepts

2018 ◽  
pp. 640-660
Author(s):  
Michiel Van Elk ◽  
Harold Bekkering
Keyword(s):  
Prediction Error ◽  
Predictive Processing ◽  
Prediction Errors ◽  
Conceptual Representation ◽  
Recurrent Processing ◽  
Different Dimensions ◽  
Prior Models ◽  
Processing Framework

We characterize theories of conceptual representation as embodied, disembodied, or hybrid according to their stance on a number of different dimensions: the nature of concepts, the relation between language and concepts, the function of concepts, the acquisition of concepts, the representation of concepts, and the role of context. We propose to extend an embodied view of concepts, by taking into account the importance of multimodal associations and predictive processing. We argue that concepts are dynamically acquired and updated, based on recurrent processing of prediction error signals in a hierarchically structured network. Concepts are thus used as prior models to generate multimodal expectations, thereby reducing surprise and enabling greater precision in the perception of exemplars. This view places embodied theories of concepts in a novel predictive processing framework, by highlighting the importance of concepts for prediction, learning and shaping categories on the basis of prediction errors.

scholarly journals Clinical and Neurophysiological Correlates of Emotion and Food Craving Regulation in Patients with Anorexia Nervosa

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 960 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nuria Mallorquí-Bagué ◽  
María Lozano-Madrid ◽  
Giulia Testa ◽  
Cristina Vintró-Alcaraz ◽  
Isabel Sánchez ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Anorexia Nervosa ◽  
Emotional Regulation ◽  
Food Addiction ◽  
Emotional Dysregulation ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Food Craving ◽  
Task Condition ◽  
Positive Potential ◽  
Difficulties In Emotion Regulation ◽  
Relevant Task

Background: Difficulties in emotion regulation and craving regulation have been linked to eating symptomatology in patients with anorexia nervosa (AN), contributing to the maintenance of their eating disorder. Methods: To investigate clinical and electrophysiological correlates of these processes, 20 patients with AN and 20 healthy controls (HC) completed a computerized task during EEG recording, where they were instructed to down-regulate negative emotions or food craving. Participants also completed self-report measures of emotional regulation and food addiction. The P300 and Late Positive Potential (LPP) ERPs were analysed. Results: LPP amplitudes were significantly smaller during down-regulation of food craving among both groups. Independent of task condition, individuals with AN showed smaller P300 amplitudes compared to HC. Among HC, the self-reported use of re-appraisal strategies positively correlated with LPP amplitudes during emotional regulation task, while suppressive strategies negatively correlated with LPP amplitudes. The AN group, in comparison to the HC group, exhibited greater food addiction, greater use of maladaptive strategies, and emotional dysregulation. Conclusions: Despite the enhanced self-reported psychopathology among AN, both groups indicated neurophysiological evidence of food craving regulation as evidenced by blunted LPP amplitudes in the relevant task condition. Further research is required to delineate the mechanisms associated with reduced overall P300 amplitudes among individuals with AN.

scholarly journals Physiological Factors Linking Insecure Attachment to Psychopathology: A Systematic Review

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 1477
Author(s):  
Marta Tironi ◽  
Simone Charpentier Charpentier Mora ◽  
Donatella Cavanna ◽  
Jessica L. Borelli ◽  
Fabiola Bizzi
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Emotional Regulation ◽  
Skin Conductance Level ◽  
Emotional Dysregulation ◽  
Insecure Attachment ◽  
Clinical Samples ◽  
Anxious Attachment ◽  
Physiological Factors ◽  
Sinus Arrhythmia ◽  
Cardiac Slowing

Although many studies have documented associations between insecure attachment and psychopathology, attachment may not confer risk for psychopathology independently, but rather through its interaction with emotional, social, and biological factors. Understanding the variables through which attachment may lead to psychopathology is therefore important. Within this domain of research, the role of physiological factors is poorly investigated. What are the relevant domains and why, when, or for whom do they influence mental disorders relating to attachment? The current systematic review aims to answer these questions. Results reveal that physiological indices of emotional regulation play a role in explaining and/or determining the relationship between attachment and psychopathology. Specifically: (1) combined with insecure attachment, higher skin conductance level (SCL), lower cardiac slowing, and respiratory sinus arrhythmia modulation (RSA) contribute to different psychopathological indicators and behavioral/psychological dysfunctions, although the latter predicts a contradictory pattern of findings; (2) insecure-avoidant attachment is more consistently linked with stress and emotional dysregulation when combined with RSA, while anxious attachment confers risk of depressive symptoms when combined with SCL. We concluded our discussion of the results of seven studies by outlining a plan to move the field forward. We discuss the quality of the assessment, methodological limitations, and future directions, highlighting the need to extend the research to clinical samples.

scholarly journals Enacting Media. An Embodied Account of Enculturation Between Neuromediality and New Cognitive Media Theory

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joerg Fingerhut
Keyword(s):  
Digital Media ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
Generative Models ◽  
Media Theory ◽  
Media Ecology ◽  
Predictive Processing ◽  
Moving Images ◽  
The World ◽  
Media Work ◽  
The Mind

This paper argues that the still-emerging paradigm of situated cognition requires a more systematic perspective on media to capture the enculturation of the human mind. By virtue of being media, cultural artifacts present central experiential models of the world for our embodied minds to latch onto. The paper identifies references to external media within embodied, extended, enactive, and predictive approaches to cognition, which remain underdeveloped in terms of the profound impact that media have on our mind. To grasp this impact, I propose an enactive account of media that is based on expansive habits as media-structured, embodied ways of bringing forth meaning and new domains of values. We apply such habits, for instance, when seeing a picture or perceiving a movie. They become established through a process of reciprocal adaptation between media artifacts and organisms and define the range of viable actions within such a media ecology. Within an artifactual habit, we then become attuned to a specific media work (e.g., a TV series, a picture, a text, or even a city) that engages us. Both the plurality of habits and the dynamical adjustments within a habit require a more flexible neural architecture than is addressed by classical cognitive neuroscience. To detail how neural and media processes interlock, I will introduce the concept of neuromediality and discuss radical predictive processing accounts that could contribute to the externalization of the mind by treating media themselves as generative models of the world. After a short primer on general media theory, I discuss media examples in three domains: pictures and moving images; digital media; architecture and the built environment. This discussion demonstrates the need for a new cognitive media theory based on enactive artifactual habits—one that will help us gain perspective on the continuous re-mediation of our mind.

scholarly journals Young Infants Process Prediction Errors at the Theta Rhythm

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Moritz Köster ◽  
Miriam Langeloh ◽  
Christine Michel ◽  
Stefanie Hoehl
Keyword(s):  
Theta Rhythm ◽  
Time Window ◽  
Predictive Processing ◽  
Prediction Errors ◽  
Unexpected Events ◽  
Young Infants ◽  
Human Brain Development ◽  
Social Events ◽  
Infant Brain ◽  
Process Prediction

AbstractExamining how young infants respond to unexpected events is key to our understanding of their emerging concepts about the world around them. From a predictive processing perspective, it is intriguing to investigate how the infant brain responds to unexpected events (i.e., prediction errors), because they require infants to refine their predictive models about the environment. Here, to better understand prediction error processes in the infant brain, we presented 9-month-olds (N = 36) a variety of physical and social events with unexpected versus expected outcomes, while recording their electroencephalogram. We found a pronounced response in the ongoing 4 – 5 Hz theta rhythm for the processing of unexpected (in contrast to expected) events, for a prolonged time window (2 s) and across all scalp-recorded electrodes. The condition difference in the theta rhythm was not related to the condition difference in infants’ event-related activity on the negative central (Nc) component (.4 – .6 s), which has been described in former studies. These findings constitute critical evidence that the theta rhythm is involved in the processing of prediction errors from very early in human brain development, which may support infants’ refinement of basic concepts about the physical and social environment.

scholarly journals Epilepsy and Ecstatic Experiences: The Role of the Insula

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 1384
Author(s):  
Fabienne Picard ◽  
Peter Bossaerts ◽  
Fabrice Bartolomei
Keyword(s):  
Temporal Lobe Epilepsy ◽  
Temporal Lobe ◽  
Mystical Experience ◽  
Focal Epilepsy ◽  
Anterior Insula ◽  
External Signal ◽  
Prediction Errors ◽  
Rare Form ◽  
The World

Ecstatic epilepsy is a rare form of focal epilepsy in which the aura (beginning of the seizures) consists of a blissful state of mental clarity/feeling of certainty. Such a state has also been described as a “religious” or mystical experience. While this form of epilepsy has long been recognized as a temporal lobe epilepsy, we have accumulated evidence converging toward the location of the symptomatogenic zone in the dorsal anterior insula during the 10 last years. The neurocognitive hypothesis for the genesis of a mental clarity is the suppression of the interoceptive prediction errors and of the unexpected surprise associated with any incoming internal or external signal, usually processed by the dorsal anterior insula. This mimics a perfect prediction of the world and induces a feeling of certainty. The ecstatic epilepsy is thus an amazing model for the role of anterior insula in uncertainty and surprise.

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