Symposium 2: ch. Tsakiris

Thursday, July 5 2012 11:00-13:00 @ Dome Theatre

Symposium 2: "Bringing the in-depth body to the surface: interoception, awareness and prediction"

Chair: Manos Tsakiris (Department of Psychology, University of London, UK)

SUMMARY

Introduction by Manos Tsakiris.

Interoception is a ubiquitous information channel used for the central representation of internal bodily states. A renewed interest in the functional role of interoception has emphasized its primary role for the representation of an integrated sense of self. At the same time, current models of perception have been largely influenced by a Bayesian approach that underlines the role of internal predictive models for the processing and interpretation of incoming exteroceptive information. Could the functional role of interoception be understood in terms of predictive coding, and if yes what are the implications for interoceptive awareness? Interoceptive awareness (i.e. the awareness of the physiological state of one’s body) is assessed by quantifying interoceptive sensitivity (IS), usually in the context of heartbeat detection tasks. Behaviourally, the sensitivity to the perception of internal states of the body has been shown to modulate a range of cognitive, affective and sensory processes. The three talks of this symposium will focus on how sensitivity to internal bodily states comes to awareness and how it modulates emotional processes (Critchley), self-other representations (Tsakiris) and internal conflicts (Hopkins) via predictive internal models. Across three disciplines (e.g. neuroscience, psychology and philosophy), the three talks provide a timely debate of interoception as a model of predictive coding.