An active inference theory of allostasis and interoception in depression
2016 (English)In: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Biological Sciences, ISSN 0962-8436, E-ISSN 1471-2970, Vol. 371, no 1708, article id 20160011Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
In this paper, we integrate recent theoretical and empirical developments in predictive coding and active inference accounts of interoception (including the Embodied Predictive Interoception Coding model) with working hypotheses from the theory of constructed emotion to propose a biologically plausible unified theory of the mind that places metabolism and energy regulation (i.e. allostasis), as well as the sensory consequences of that regulation (i.e. interoception), at its core. We then consider the implications of this approach for understanding depression. We speculate that depression is a disorder of allostasis, whose myriad symptoms result from a locked in brain that is relatively insensitive to its sensory context. We conclude with a brief discussion of the ways our approach might reveal new insights for the treatment of depression. This article is part of the themed issue Interoception beyond homeostasis: affect, cognition and mental health.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
ROYAL SOC , 2016. Vol. 371, no 1708, article id 20160011
Keyword [en]
interoception; visceromotor; major depressive disorder; fMRI; prediction
National Category
Bioinformatics (Computational Biology)
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-133261DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2016.0011ISI: 000387766300009OAI: oai:DiVA.org:liu-133261DiVA, id: diva2:1057486
Note
Funding Agencies|National Institutes on Aging [R01 AG030311]; National Cancer Institute [U01 CA193632]; National Science Foundation [1638234]; US Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences [W911NF-15-1-0647, W911NF-16-1-0191]
2016-12-182016-12-152018-01-13