Active interoceptive inference and the emotional brain

We review a recent shift in conceptions of interoception and its relationship to hierarchical inference in the brain. The notion of interoceptive inference means that bodily states are regulated by autonomic reflexes that are enslaved by descending predictions from deep generative models of our internal and external milieu. This re-conceptualization illuminates several issues in cognitive and clinical neuroscience with implications for experiences of selfhood and emotion. We first contextualize interoception in terms of active (Bayesian) inference in the brain, highlighting its enactivist (embodied) aspects. We then consider the key role of uncertainty or precision and how this might translate into…

• W
  Wellcome

  Award: 088130/Z/09/Z
• DM
  Dr Mortimer and Theresa Sackler Foundation
• EA
  Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council

  Award: EP/G007543/1