Predictive brain hypothesis

The hypothesis that prediction and expectation are central to perception. Sensory information is used to correct prediction errors and improve predictions, and agents actively influence their next perceptions by acting in ways that match their predictions. In other words, action is self-fulfilling prediction.

Differences from the traditional view

In the traditional view, perception passively receives sensory information, the brain performs computations, and then action is executed. A more recent view holds that perception is influenced by predictions and expectations. In other words, top-down processing exists.

In the predictive processing view, there is no raw experience without prediction, and perception and action are not separate ‘stages’ but a single, continuously connected flow.

Evidence

• Feedback from V1 to LGN
• Functional visual loss

Articles

• 2014-10-06 - Autism as a disorder of prediction

See also

• The experience machine: How our minds predict and shape reality: An accessible explanation of the predictive brain hypothesis.