Episodic Visual Hallucinations, Inference and Free Energy
Abstract
:1. Introduction
1.1. The Importance of Visual Hallucinations
1.2. Generative Models of Visual Perception
1.3. Active Inference and Hallucinations
1.4. The Challenge of Episodic Hallucinations
1.5. Biases in the Data on How Hallucinations Occur Only Sometimes
1.6. Evidence on the Role of Information Transfer from the Environment in Triggering Hallucinations
2. Re-Conceptualizing Hallucinatory Episodes
2.1. Onset of a Hallucinatory Episode—How Something Different Is Seen to What Is There
2.2. Types of Inference and Variational Principles
2.2.1. Shannon Surprise and Discriminative Inference
2.2.2. Variational Principles for Nonstationary Brain Dynamics
2.3. Persistence of Hallucinations
2.4. Ending of Hallucination
2.5. Momentary Non-Equilibrium Thermodynamic Processes, Free Energy and the Transience of Hallucinations
3. Future Research Directions
4. Conclusions
Author Contributions
Funding
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
Appendix A
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Type of Inference | Discriminative | Generative |
---|---|---|
Role in veridical perception | Rapid recognition of behaviourally significant information for perception | Perception of complex, convolved scenes, and objects within them. |
Relationship to environment | Associated with specific objects (e.g. cushion) | Associated with general context |
Stage of hallucinatory episode it applies to | Onset and offset | Persistence |
Information transfer from environment | Direct and specific | Indirect and less specific via context and error term |
Information Framework | Self-organization under constraints (maximization of shared information) | Minimization of free energy (Kullback–Leibler divergence and Shannon surprise) |
Mechanism of hallucination | Self-organization of potential perceptions to maximise shared information between distorted sensory information and perception. | Overly precise expectations (priors) combined with imprecise or absent sensory data. |
Applicable system | Nonstationary open nonequilibrium system | Stationary open nonequilibrium system |
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Collerton, D.; Tsuda, I.; Nara, S. Episodic Visual Hallucinations, Inference and Free Energy. Entropy 2024, 26, 557. https://doi.org/10.3390/e26070557
Collerton D, Tsuda I, Nara S. Episodic Visual Hallucinations, Inference and Free Energy. Entropy. 2024; 26(7):557. https://doi.org/10.3390/e26070557
Chicago/Turabian StyleCollerton, Daniel, Ichiro Tsuda, and Shigetoshi Nara. 2024. "Episodic Visual Hallucinations, Inference and Free Energy" Entropy 26, no. 7: 557. https://doi.org/10.3390/e26070557