Action Is Enabled by Systematic Misrepresentations.
According to active inference (which subsumes the framework of predictive processing), action is enabled by a top-down modulation of sensory signals. Computational models of this mechanism complement ideomotor theories of action representation. Such theories postulate common neural representations f...
| Published in: | Erkenntnis Vol. 82; no. 6; pp. 1233 - 1253 |
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| Format: | Article |
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Springer Nature
Dec2017
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| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=126402426&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 126402426 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 01650106 5KZ jtl: Erkenntnis issn: 01650106 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Dec2017 vid: 82 iid: 6 pid: 237 pub: Springer Nature artinfo: ui: 126402426 10.1007/s10670-016-9867-x ppf: 1233 ppct: 20 formats: fmt: @attributes: type: P size: 552KB tig: atl: Action Is Enabled by Systematic Misrepresentations. aug: au: Wiese, Wanja affil: Department of Philosophy , Johannes Gutenberg University , Saarstr. 21 55122 Mainz Germany su: Theory of knowledge Thought & thinking -- Social aspects Cognitive ability Reasoning Neurosciences Visual perception sug: subj: Theory of knowledge Thought & thinking -- Social aspects Cognitive ability Reasoning Neurosciences Visual perception ab: According to active inference (which subsumes the framework of predictive processing), action is enabled by a top-down modulation of sensory signals. Computational models of this mechanism complement ideomotor theories of action representation. Such theories postulate common neural representations for action and perception, without specifying how action is enabled by such representations. In active inference, motor commands are replaced by proprioceptive predictions. In order to initiate action through such predictions, sensory prediction errors have to be attenuated. This paper argues that such top-down modulation involves systematic (but paradoxically beneficial) misrepresentations. More specifically, the paper first argues for the following conditional claim. If active inference provides an accurate computational description of how action is enabled in the brain, then action is enabled by systematic misrepresentations. Furthermore, it is argued that an inference to the best explanation provides reason for believing the antecedent is true: Firstly, active inference provides a crucial extension to ideomotor theories. Secondly, active inference explains otherwise puzzling phenomena related to sensory attenuation, e.g. in force-matching or self-tickling paradigms. Taken together, these reasons support the claim that action is indeed enabled by systematic misrepresentations. The claim casts doubt on the assumption that representations are systematically beneficial to the extent that they are true: if the argument in this paper is sound, systematically beneficial misrepresentations may lie at the heart of our neural architecture. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Erkenntnis is a copyright of Springer, 2017. All Rights Reserved. item: Erkenntnis holder: Springer Nature dt: @attributes: year: 2017 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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