Predictive processing and perception: What does imagining have to do with it?

Cavedon-Taylor, Dan

doi:10.1016/j.concog.2022.103419

Cited by 5 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 50 publications

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“…Furthermore, although we do not devote an entire section on imaginative control here (due to the rather few scientific studies on the topic), this can also be highly sensory, as in the case of prophantasia, as described by Galton (1880) (in which a proportion of participants were able to mentally project a stimulus onto a blank piece of paper in their hand) and recently by Cavedon-Taylor (2022) . Controlled imaginative information can also be less sensory, such as seen in time-space savantism ( Simner et al.…”

Section: Mental Imagery Determines the Sensory Richness Of Divergent ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Another form of divergent perception is synaesthesia, a phenomenon whereby a specific experience (called the inducer) triggers an additional, unrelated experience (called the concurrent); this can be a sensory experience, such as that seen in grapheme-color synaesthesia (experiencing colors associated with different alphanumeric characters), or a less sensory experience, such as that seen in sequence-space synaesthesia (experiencing information with a specific spatial organization; Simner 2012 ). An interesting, but little-investigated phenomenon is mental projection ( Cavedon-Taylor 2022 ) or “prophantasia” 2 ; this is the voluntary ability to mentally project imagined stimuli into the external environment.…”

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confidence: 99%

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A novel model of divergent predictive perception

Reeder,

Sala,

van Leeuwen

2024

Neuroscience of Consciousness

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Predictive processing theories state that our subjective experience of reality is shaped by a balance of expectations based on previous knowledge about the world (i.e. priors) and confidence in sensory input from the environment. Divergent experiences (e.g. hallucinations and synaesthesia) are likely to occur when there is an imbalance between one’s reliance on priors and sensory input. In a novel theoretical model, inspired by both predictive processing and psychological principles, we propose that predictable divergent experiences are associated with natural or environmentally induced prior/sensory imbalances: inappropriately strong or inflexible (i.e. maladaptive) high-level priors (beliefs) combined with low sensory confidence can result in reality discrimination issues, a characteristic of psychosis; maladaptive low-level priors (sensory expectations) combined with high sensory confidence can result in atypical sensory sensitivities and persistent divergent percepts, a characteristic of synaesthesia. Crucially, we propose that whether different divergent experiences manifest with dominantly sensory (e.g. hallucinations) or nonsensory characteristics (e.g. delusions) depends on mental imagery ability, which is a spectrum from aphantasia (absent or weak imagery) to hyperphantasia (extremely vivid imagery). We theorize that imagery is critically involved in shaping the sensory richness of divergent perceptual experience. In sum, to predict a range of divergent perceptual experiences in both clinical and general populations, three factors must be accounted for: a maladaptive use of priors, individual level of confidence in sensory input, and mental imagery ability. These ideas can be expressed formally using nonparametric regression modeling. We provide evidence for our theory from previous work and deliver predictions for future research.

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Section: Mental Imagery Determines the Sensory Richness Of Divergent ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

A novel model of divergent predictive perception

Reeder,

Sala,

van Leeuwen

2024

Neuroscience of Consciousness

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Furthermore, although we do not devote an entire section on imaginative control here (due to the rather few scientific studies on the topic), this can also be highly sensory, as in the case of prophantasia, as described by Galton (1880) (in which a proportion of participants were able to mentally project a stimulus onto a blank piece of paper in their hand) and recently by Cavedon-Taylor (2022). Controlled imaginative information can also be less sensory, such as seen in time-space savantism (Simner et al 2009).…”

Section: Mental Imagery Determines the Sensory Richness Of Divergent ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…associated with different alphanumeric characters), or a less sensory experience, such as that seen in sequence-space synaesthesia (experiencing information with a specific spatial organization; Simner 2012). An interesting, but little-investigated phenomenon is mental projection (Cavedon-Taylor 2022) or "prophantasia" 2 ; this is the voluntary ability to mentally project imagined stimuli into the external environment.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

A novel model of divergent predictive perception

Reeder¹,

Sala²,

Leeuwen³

2023

Preprint

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Predictive processing theories state that our subjective experience of reality is shaped by a balance of expectations based on previous knowledge about the world (i.e., priors) and confidence in sensory input from the environment. Divergent experiences (e.g., hallucinations, synaesthesia) are likely to occur when there is an imbalance between one’s reliance on priors and sensory input. In a novel theoretical model, we hypothesize that predictable divergent experiences are associated with natural (maladaptive priors) or induced (environmental) prior/sensory imbalances: overly strong or inflexible high-level priors (beliefs) are associated with low sensory confidence, which can result in reality discrimination issues (characteristic of psychosis); overly strong or inflexible low-level priors (e.g., sensory expectations) are associated with high sensory confidence, but can result in abnormal sensory sensitivities and persistent divergent percepts (characteristic of synaesthesia). Whether different divergent experiences manifest with dominantly sensory (e.g., hallucinations) or non-sensory characteristics (e.g., delusions), depends on mental imagery ability, which is a spectrum from aphantasia (absent or weak imagery) to hyperphantasia (extremely vivid imagery). We argue that imagery is critically involved in shaping the sensory richness of divergent perceptual experiences. These ideas are expressed formally in a generalized linear mixed model, which takes the interaction between three factors that contribute to divergent perception: a maladaptive use of priors in interpreting sensory input, individual level of sensory confidence, and mental imagery vividness. We provide evidence for this model from previous research, and deliver predictions for future research.

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Breaking boundaries: The Bayesian Brain Hypothesis for perception and prediction

Hipólito

Kirchhoff

2023

Consciousness and Cognition

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Predictive processing and perception: What does imagining have to do with it?

Cited by 5 publications

References 50 publications

A novel model of divergent predictive perception

A novel model of divergent predictive perception

A novel model of divergent predictive perception

Breaking boundaries: The Bayesian Brain Hypothesis for perception and prediction

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