» Articles » PMID: 39202147

Hacking the Predictive Mind

Overview
Journal Entropy (Basel)
Publisher MDPI
Date 2024 Aug 29
PMID 39202147
Authors
Affiliations
Soon will be listed here.
Abstract

According to active inference, constantly running prediction engines in our brain play a large role in delivering all human experience. These predictions help deliver everything we see, hear, touch, and feel. In this paper, I pursue one apparent consequence of this increasingly well-supported view. Given the constant influence of hidden predictions on human experience, can we leverage the power of prediction in the service of human flourishing? Can we learn to hack our own predictive regimes in ways that better serve our needs and purposes? Asking this question rapidly reveals a landscape that is at once familiar and new. It is also challenging, suggesting important questions about scope and dangers while casting further doubt (as if any was needed) on old assumptions about a firm mind/body divide. I review a range of possible hacks, starting with the careful use of placebos, moving on to look at chronic pain and functional disorders, and ending with some speculations concerning the complex role of genetic influences on the predictive brain.

References
1.
Marshall L, Mathys C, Ruge D, de Berker A, Dayan P, Stephan K . Pharmacological Fingerprints of Contextual Uncertainty. PLoS Biol. 2016; 14(11):e1002575. PMC: 5113004. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.1002575. View

2.
Carvalho C, Caetano J, Cunha L, Rebouta P, Kaptchuk T, Kirsch I . Open-label placebo treatment in chronic low back pain: a randomized controlled trial. Pain. 2016; 157(12):2766-2772. PMC: 5113234. DOI: 10.1097/j.pain.0000000000000700. View

3.
Lumley M, Schubiner H . Psychological Therapy for Centralized Pain: An Integrative Assessment and Treatment Model. Psychosom Med. 2018; 81(2):114-124. PMC: 6355353. DOI: 10.1097/PSY.0000000000000654. View

4.
Jepma M, Koban L, van Doorn J, Jones M, Wager T . Behavioural and neural evidence for self-reinforcing expectancy effects on pain. Nat Hum Behav. 2019; 2(11):838-855. PMC: 6768437. DOI: 10.1038/s41562-018-0455-8. View

5.
Milde C, Brinskelle L, Glombiewski J . Does Active Inference Provide a Comprehensive Theory of Placebo Analgesia?. Biol Psychiatry Cogn Neurosci Neuroimaging. 2023; 9(1):10-20. DOI: 10.1016/j.bpsc.2023.08.007. View