Ainley Vivien, Apps Matthew A J, Fotopoulou Aikaterini, Tsakiris Manos
Laboratory of Action and Body, Department of Psychology, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham TW20 0EX, UK
Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3UD, UK.
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2016 Nov 19;371(1708). doi: 10.1098/rstb.2016.0003. Epub 2016 Oct 10.
Individuals differ in their awareness of afferent information from within their bodies, which is typically assessed by a heartbeat perception measure of 'interoceptive accuracy' (IAcc). Neural and behavioural correlates of this trait have been investigated, but a theoretical explanation has yet to be presented. Building on recent models that describe interoception within the free energy/predictive coding framework, this paper applies similar principles to IAcc, proposing that individual differences in IAcc depend on 'precision' in interoceptive systems, i.e. the relative weight accorded to 'prior' representations and 'prediction errors' (that part of incoming interoceptive sensation not accounted for by priors), at various levels within the cortical hierarchy and between modalities. Attention has the effect of optimizing precision both within and between sensory modalities. Our central assumption is that people with high IAcc are able, with attention, to prioritize interoception over other sensory modalities and can thus adjust the relative precision of their interoceptive priors and prediction errors, where appropriate, given their personal history. This characterization explains key findings within the interoception literature; links results previously seen as unrelated or contradictory; and may have important implications for understanding cognitive, behavioural and psychopathological consequences of both high and low interoceptive awareness.This article is part of the themed issue 'Interoception beyond homeostasis: affect, cognition and mental health'.
个体对来自其体内传入信息的感知存在差异,这种差异通常通过“内感受准确性”(IAcc)的心跳感知测量来评估。人们已经对这一特征的神经和行为相关性进行了研究,但尚未给出理论解释。基于最近在自由能/预测编码框架内描述内感受的模型,本文将类似原理应用于IAcc,提出IAcc的个体差异取决于内感受系统中的“精度”,即在皮质层级的各个层面以及不同感觉模态之间,给予“先验”表征和“预测误差”(传入的内感受感觉中未被先验解释的部分)的相对权重。注意力具有优化感觉模态内部和之间精度的作用。我们的核心假设是,具有高IAcc的人能够通过注意力将内感受置于其他感觉模态之上,从而在适当的时候,根据个人经历调整其内感受先验和预测误差的相对精度。这一描述解释了内感受文献中的关键发现;将以前看似不相关或相互矛盾的结果联系起来;并且可能对理解高内感受意识和低内感受意识的认知、行为及精神病理学后果具有重要意义。本文是主题为“超越内稳态的内感受:情感、认知与心理健康”特刊的一部分。