The Self-Evidencing Brain Hohwy, Jakob
Noûs (Bloomington, Indiana),
June 2016, Letnik:
50, Številka:
2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
An exciting theory in neuroscience is that the brain is an organ for prediction error minimization (PEM). This theory is rapidly gaining influence and is set to dominate the science of mind and brain ...in the years to come. PEM has extreme explanatory ambition, and profound philosophical implications. Here, I assume the theory, briefly explain it, and then I argue that PEM implies that the brain is essentially self-evidencing. This means it is imperative to identify an evidentiary boundary between the brain and its environment. This boundary defines the mindworld relation, opens the door to skepticism, and makes the mind transpire as more inferentially secluded and neurocentrically skull-bound than many would nowadays think. Therefore, PEM somewhat deflates contemporary hypotheses that cognition is extended, embodied and enactive; however, it can nevertheless accommodate the kinds of cases that fuel these hypotheses.
This is a review of the proprioceptive senses generated as a result of our own actions. They include the senses of position and movement of our limbs and trunk, the sense of effort, the sense of ...force, and the sense of heaviness. Receptors involved in proprioception are located in skin, muscles, and joints. Information about limb position and movement is not generated by individual receptors, but by populations of afferents. Afferent signals generated during a movement are processed to code for endpoint position of a limb. The afferent input is referred to a central body map to determine the location of the limbs in space. Experimental phantom limbs, produced by blocking peripheral nerves, have shown that motor areas in the brain are able to generate conscious sensations of limb displacement and movement in the absence of any sensory input. In the normal limb tendon organs and possibly also muscle spindles contribute to the senses of force and heaviness. Exercise can disturb proprioception, and this has implications for musculoskeletal injuries. Proprioceptive senses, particularly of limb position and movement, deteriorate with age and are associated with an increased risk of falls in the elderly. The more recent information available on proprioception has given a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying these senses as well as providing new insight into a range of clinical conditions.
Can what we know change what we see? Does language affect cognition and perception? The last few years have seen increased attention to these seemingly disparate questions, but with little ...theoretical advance. We argue that substantial clarity can be gained by considering these questions through the lens of predictive processing, a framework in which mental representations—from the perceptual to the cognitive—reflect an interplay between downwardflowing predictions and upward-flowing sensory signals. This framework provides a parsimonious account of how (and when) what we know ought to change what we see and helps us understand how a putatively high-level trait such as language can impact putatively low-level processes such as perception. Within this framework, language begins to take on a surprisingly central role in cognition by providing a uniquely focused and flexible means of constructing predictions against which sensory signals can be evaluated. Predictive processing thus provides a plausible mechanism for many of the reported effects of language on perception, thought, and action, and new insights on how and when speakers of different languages construct the same "reality" in alternate ways.
Introduction The disruption of minimal Self is believed to be a core element of Schizophrenia and intimately connected to a disruption of bodily self, which in turn leads to impairments in ...intersubjectivity dimension. Motor abnormalities have been associated to Schizophrenia since the early conceptualization of the disorder, as well as inefficient body-related multisensory integration processes are considered nowadays a plausible origin of disembodied Self. In particular, there is evidence for significant abnormalities in Peripersonal Space (PPS) extension in Schizophrenia patients. PPS is the plastic sector of space immediately surrounding our body, whose coherent representation is based on efficient body-related multisensory integration processes. With a specific experimental task based on multisensory integration processing, we estimated PPS size and PPS boundary’s demarcation in 27 Schizophrenia patients, confirming a narrower PPS size and weaker bodily boundary in patients, thus paving the way for a deeper investigation of the mechanisms underlying the disruption of bodily self (Ferroni et al., Schziophr.Bull.2022, 5 1085-1093). We suggest that disembodiment might be responsible for the loss of the immediate linkage between Self and others (“intercorporeality”), so linking the disruption of the corporeal dimension to specific anomalies of intersubjectivity in Schizophrenia patients. Since language is one of the most important instrument through which intersubjectivity unfolds, it is intriguing to hypothesize a connection between language and multi-sensory processing. Objectives Therefore, the present study was aimed at investigating possible correlations between patients’ motor impairments in multi-sensory integration processes and their alterations in language and communicative interactions. Methods Twenty-five outpatients were recruited in an experimental task investigating PPS extension; they were administered the Scale for the Assessment of Thought, Language and Communication (TLC) and the Clinical Language Disorder Rating Scale (CLANG). Results Our data showed significant correlations between TLC and CLANG total scores and PPS size, with narrower PPS size for more severe formal thought disorders and higher language and communication impairments. Conclusions Our preliminary results seem to confirm the presence of a link between language impairment and multi-sensory processing, suggesting that bodily and linguistic disorganization may have a common origin which has yet to be explored in depth. Future research is needed to identify linguistic and motor endophenotypic patterns, potentially intertwined with each other, capable of early predicting Schizophrenia development and thus usable as early diagnostic tools. Disclosure of Interest None Declared
Understanding of the brain and the principles governing neural processing requires theories that are parsimonious, can account for a diverse set of phenomena, and can make testable predictions. Here, ...we review the theory of Bayesian causal inference, which has been tested, refined, and extended in a variety of tasks in humans and other primates by several research groups. Bayesian causal inference is normative and has explained human behavior in a vast number of tasks including unisensory and multisensory perceptual tasks, sensorimotor, and motor tasks, and has accounted for counter-intuitive findings. The theory has made novel predictions that have been tested and confirmed empirically, and recent studies have started to map its algorithms and neural implementation in the human brain. The parsimony, the diversity of the phenomena that the theory has explained, and its illuminating brain function at all three of Marr’s levels of analysis make Bayesian causal inference a strong neuroscience theory. This also highlights the importance of collaborative and multi-disciplinary research for the development of new theories in neuroscience.
•Bayesian Causal Inference accounts for phenomena ranging from sensation to action.•Bayesian Causal inference is a unifying neuroscience theory.•Bayesian Causal Inference involves competitive structural priors/hypotheses.•Bayesian Causal Inference appears implemented in the brain in a distributed fashion.
While atypical sensory perception is reported among individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), the underlying neural mechanisms of autism that give rise to disruptions in sensory perception ...remain unclear. We developed a neural model with key physiological, functional and neuroanatomical parameters to investigate mechanisms underlying the range of representations of visual illusions related to orientation perception in typically developed subjects compared to individuals with ASD. Our results showed that two theorized autistic traits, excitation/inhibition imbalance and weakening of top‐down modulation, could be potential candidates for reduced susceptibility to some visual illusions. Parametric correlation between cortical suppression, balance of excitation/inhibition, feedback from higher visual areas on one hand and susceptibility to a class of visual illusions related to orientation perception on the other hand provide the opportunity to investigate the contribution and complex interactions of distinct sensory processing mechanisms in ASD. The novel approach used in this study can be used to link behavioural, functional and neuropathological studies; estimate and predict perceptual and cognitive heterogeneity in ASD; and form a basis for the development of novel diagnostics and therapeutics.
Individuals with autism perceive the external world, including visual scenes, differently. To better understand potential brain changes in autism, we developed a neural model that can mimic our brain's visual system and showed that people with autism are less susceptible to some visual illusions, because of potential changes in brain wiring. This work can form a framework for the study of autism heterogeneity and the development of new diagnostics.
Toward a science of computational ethology Anderson, David J; Perona, Pietro
Neuron (Cambridge, Mass.),
2014-Oct-01, 2014-10-00, 20141001, Letnik:
84, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
The new field of “Computational Ethology” is made possible by advances in technology, mathematics, and engineering that allow scientists to automate the measurement and the analysis of animal ...behavior. We explore the opportunities and long-term directions of research in this area.
Sensory perception in autism Robertson, Caroline E; Baron-Cohen, Simon
Nature reviews. Neuroscience,
11/2017, Letnik:
18, Številka:
11
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Autism is a complex neurodevelopmental condition, and little is known about its neurobiology. Much of autism research has focused on the social, communication and cognitive difficulties associated ...with the condition. However, the recent revision of the diagnostic criteria for autism has brought another key domain of autistic experience into focus: sensory processing. Here, we review the properties of sensory processing in autism and discuss recent computational and neurobiological insights arising from attention to these behaviours. We argue that sensory traits have important implications for the development of animal and computational models of the condition. Finally, we consider how difficulties in sensory processing may relate to the other domains of behaviour that characterize autism.
Video evidence is proliferating in the courtroom, outpacing the incremental advances in policies governing its use. Psychological research on attention and perception indicates that people are ...vulnerable to numerous biases in how they interpret video. The dynamic format of such evidence directs attention in distinct ways, and the visual system selectively captures some pieces of information at the expense of others. Thus, perceivers who must make decisions about video evidence are vulnerable to overweighting the information they see, underweighting the information they do not see, and being overconfident about their interpretation of what they see. We marshal emerging research on attention and cognition to consider perceivers’ vulnerabilities to video evidence. Further, we ask whether instruction interventions may disrupt biases in decision-making about video evidence. We present pilot data suggesting that instructions to consider information missing from a scene might bridge the gap between disparate perceptions of body camera and dashcam footage of the same scene.
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