An active inference theory of allostasis and interoception in depression.
Author: Barrett LF1,2,3, Quigley KS4, Hamilton P5
Affiliation:
1Department of Psychology, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA l.barrett@neu.edu.
2Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA, USA.
3Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
4Department of Psychology, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA.
5Center for Social and Affective Neuroscience, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden.
Conference/Journal: Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci.
Date published: 2016 Nov 19
Other:
Volume ID: 371 , Issue ID: 1708 , Special Notes: doi: 10.1098/rstb.2016.0011. Epub 2016 Oct 10. , Word Count: 158
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'.
© 2016 The Author(s).
KEYWORDS: fMRI; interoception; major depressive disorder; prediction; visceromotor
PMID: 28080969 PMCID: PMC5062100 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2016.0011
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