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Energizing or Depleting: A Field Guide
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Module 1
The Predictive Brain: A First-Principles View
1
Cortical Microcircuits for Predictive Coding and Precision Weighting
Explain how cortical pyramidal neurons implement and propagate prediction (deep layers) and prediction error (superficial layers), and how precision weighting modulates this error signal's propagation through the hierarchy.
Neuromodulators and Synaptic Precision
Explain precision weighting as synaptic gain modulation, identifying how key neuromodulators (DA, ACh, 5-HT, NE) each control precision on different signal types.
Cortical Targets of Exteroceptive and Interoceptive Prediction
Distinguish exteroceptive prediction (modeling the external world) from interoceptive prediction (modeling the body’s internal state) at the anatomical level, tracing each to its cortical target.
4
Active Inference: Perception-Action Loop
Explain active inference as the unified loop where perception updates the model and action changes the world to match the model, using a concrete sensorimotor example.
5
Hierarchical Generative Models and Temporal Depth of Prediction
Describe the hierarchical organization of the generative model—higher levels encoding slower, more abstract regularities—and explain how this produces the temporal depth of prediction.
6
Free Energy Minimization: Brain's Survival Algorithm
Explain free energy minimization operationally: the quantity the brain minimizes, its relationship to prediction error and model complexity, and why this keeps the organism alive.
7
The Predictive Self-Model: Transparency of "Me"
Describe the predictive self-model: the brain’s hierarchically organized predictions about its own traits, boundaries, and agency, and explain how this self-model is phenomenally transparent—experienced as direct reality rather than a model.
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Chemical Architecture: Neurotransmitters and Hormones