I overthink—Therefore I am not: An active inference account of altered sense of self and agency in depersonalisation disorder
Research output: Contribution to journal › Research article › Contributed › peer-review
Contributors
Abstract
This paper considers the phenomenology of depersonalisation disorder, in relation to predictive processing and its associated pathophysiology. To do this, we first establish a few mechanistic tenets of predictive processing that are necessary to talk about phenomenal transparency, mental action, and self as subject. We briefly review the important role of ‘predicting precision’ and how this affords mental action and the loss of phenomenal transparency. We then turn to sensory attenuation and the phenomenal consequences of (pathophysiological) failures to attenuate or modulate sensory precision. We then consider this failure in the context of depersonalisation disorder. The key idea here is that depersonalisation disorder reflects the remarkable capacity to explain perceptual engagement with the world via the hypothesis that “I am an embodied perceiver, but I am not in control of my perception”. We suggest that individuals with depersonalisation may believe that ‘another agent’ is controlling their thoughts, perceptions or actions, while maintaining full insight that the ‘other agent’ is ‘me’ (the self). Finally, we rehearse the predictions of this formal analysis, with a special focus on the psychophysical and physiological abnormalities that may underwrite the phenomenology of depersonalisation.
Details
Original language | English |
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Article number | 103320 |
Number of pages | 14 |
Journal | Consciousness and cognition |
Volume | 101 (2022) |
Early online date | 28 Apr 2022 |
Publication status | Published - May 2022 |
Peer-reviewed | Yes |
External IDs
PubMed | 35490544 |
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Keywords
ASJC Scopus subject areas
Keywords
- Active inference, Agency, Depersonalisation, Predictive processing, Sense of self, Sensory attenuation