Interoceptive inference: From computational neuroscience to clinic

HighlightsHomeostatic interoceptive signal influence efferent autonomic outflow.Predictive coding frameworks can elucidate interoceptive and autonomic symbiosis.We describe interoceptive and autonomic symbiosis using interoceptive inference.We summarise our empirical application of interoceptive inference to dysautonomia.We report preliminary findings linking altered interoception to psychopathology. &NA; The central and autonomic nervous systems can be defined by their anatomical, functional and neurochemical characteristics, but neither functions in isolation. For example, fundamental components of autonomically mediated homeostatic processes are afferent interoceptive signals reporting the internal state of the body and efferent signals acting on interoceptive feedback assimilated by the brain. Recent predictive coding (interoceptive inference) models formulate interoception in terms of embodied predictive processes that support emotion and selfhood. We propose interoception may serve as a way to investigate holistic nervous system function and dysfunction in disorders of brain, body and behaviour. We appeal to predictive coding and (active) interoceptive inference, to describe the homeostatic functions of the central and autonomic nervous systems. We do so by (i) reviewing the active inference formulation of interoceptive and autonomic function, (ii) survey clinical applications of this formulation and (iii) describe how it offers an integrative approach to human physiology; particularly, interactions between the central and peripheral nervous systems in health and disease.

• Publication year

  2018

• Venue

  Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews

• Publication date

  2018-07-01

• Fields of study

  Medicine, Psychology

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2018.04.017PMID 29694845
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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