Interoception and embodied predictive coding

Post date: Feb 21, 2018 9:01:16 AM

Interoception - or the sense of the internal state of the body - is key to our adaptive behavior and sense of self. Interoception has been recently conceptualized within a predictive processing perspective, according to which the brain continuously generate predictions about interoceptive signals, and uses prediction errors for homeostatic and allostatic regulation (Barrett and Simmons 2015; Pezzulo 2013; Pezzulo et al. 2015; Seth et al. 2012; Seth 2013).

Within this general theoretical framework, we have developed a theory (called embodied predictive coding) that formalizes the multisensory integration of interoceptive signals with exteroceptive (perceptual) and proprioceptive streams, which is required for adaptive behavior (Pezzulo 2013). This theory entails a number of empirical predictions, which concern for example the ways bodily state influences perception, which we actively test (Pezzulo et al 2018).

Selected pubs:

  • Iodice P. Porciello G., Bufalari I., Barca L., Pezzulo G. (2019) An interoceptive illusion of effort induced by false heart-rate feedback. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 116 (28) 13897-13902 [link][press coverage]

  • Pezzulo G., Iodice, P., Barca, L., Chausse, P., Monceau, S., Mermillod, M. (2018) Increased heart rate facilitates the processing of fearful but not disgusted faces. Scientific Reports, 8, 398 [link]

  • Pezzulo, G., Rigoli, F., Friston, K. (2015) Active Inference, homeostatic regulation and adaptive behavioural control. Progress in Neurobiology 134, 17-35 [link][pdf]

  • Pezzulo, G. (2013). Why do you fear the Bogeyman? An embodied predictive coding model of perceptual inference. Cognitive, Affective, and Behavioral Neuroscience, 14(3):902-911 [link]

Other Pubs:

  • Barrett, L. F. & Simmons, W. K. (2015) Interoceptive predictions in the brain. Nat. Rev. Neurosci. 16, 419–429

  • Seth, A. K. (2013) Interoceptive inference, emotion, and the embodied self. Trends Cogn. Sci. 17, 565–573

  • Seth, A. K., Suzuki, K. & Critchley, H. D. (2012) An Interoceptive Predictive Coding Model of Conscious Presence. Front. Psychol. 2