Thought insertion as a self-disturbance: An integration of predictive coding and phenomenological approaches
Philipp Sterzer, Aaron Mishara, Martin Voss, Andreas Heinz
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience December 22, 2016 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2016.00502 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Mescaline |
| Keywords | Schizophrenia Psychosis Predictive coding Bayesian inference Perceptual processing |
| Citations | 78 |
| Key points | Proposes that thought insertion in schizophrenia results from reduced precision of context-dependent predictions, causing increased prediction-error signals for internal thoughts and their interpretation as alien. |
Abstract
Current theories in the framework of hierarchical predictive coding propose that positive symptoms of schizophrenia, such as delusions and hallucinations, arise from an alteration in Bayesian inference, the term inference referring to a process by which learned predictions are used to infer probable causes of sensory data. However, for one particularly striking and frequent symptom of schizophrenia, thought insertion, no plausible account has been proposed in terms of the predictive-coding framework. Here we propose that thought insertion is due to an altered experience of thoughts as coming from nowhere, as is already indicated by the early 20th century phenomenological accounts by the early Heidelberg School of psychiatry. These accounts identified thought insertion as one of the self-disturbances (from German: Ichstörungen) of schizophrenia and used mescaline as a model-psychosis in healthy individuals to explore the possible mechanisms. The early Heidelberg School (Gruhle, Mayer-Gross, Beringer) first named and defined the self-disturbances, and proposed that thought insertion involves a disruption of the inner connectedness of thoughts and experiences, and a becoming sensory of those thoughts experienced as inserted. This account offers a novel way to integrate the phenomenology of thought insertion with the predictive coding framework. We argue that the altered experience of thoughts may be caused by a reduced precision of context-dependent predictions, relative to sensory precision. According to the principles of Bayesian inference, this reduced precision leads to increased prediction-error signals evoked by the neural activity that encodes thoughts. Thus, in analogy with the prediction-error related aberrant salience of external events that has been proposed previously, internal events such as thoughts (including volitions, emotions and memories) can also be associated with increased prediction-error signaling and are thus imbued with aberrant salience. We suggest that the individual’s attempt to explain the aberrant salience of thoughts results in their interpretation as being inserted by an alien agent, similarly to the emergence of delusions in response to the aberrant salience of sensory stimuli.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on mescaline, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Schizophrenia: A New Approach. II. Result of a Year's Research | 1954 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Entactogens: How the Name for a Novel Class of Psychoactive Agents Originated | 2022 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Steric and Electronic Relationships among Some Hallucinogenic Compounds | 1970 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| EFFECT OF DRUGS One individual | 1952 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | n = 1 |
| Writing on drugs | 2001 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |
Citations in the library
Cited by 23
- The Predictive Coding Account of Psychosis. Biological Psychiatry May 25, 2018
- Looking for the Self: Phenomenology, Neurophysiology and Philosophical Significance of Drug-induced Ego Dissolution Frontiers in Human Neuroscience May 23, 2017
- Hallucinations Beyond Voices: A Conceptual Review of the Phenomenology of Altered Perception in Psychosis. Schizophrenia Bulletin February 1, 2019
- Prefrontal contributions to the stability and variability of thought and conscious experience Neuropsychopharmacology September 20, 2021
- Is Schizophrenia a Disorder of Consciousness? Experimental and Phenomenological Support for Anomalous Unconscious Processing. Frontiers in Psychology 2017
and 18 more in the library
Cites 13
- Psychosis as a state of aberrant salience: a framework linking biology, phenomenology, and pharmacology in schizophrenia. American Journal of Psychiatry 2003
- From drugs to deprivation: a Bayesian framework for understanding models of psychosis Psychopharmacology May 27, 2009
- Neurobiological Models of Self-Disorders in Early Schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Bulletin July 2016
- What visual illusions teach us about schizophrenia Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience September 16, 2014
- Self-disturbances in schizophrenia: history, phenomenology, and relevant findings from research on metacognition. Schizophrenia Bulletin January 2014
and 8 more in the library