2022-23 Department of Psychology Colloquium Series -- Dr. Karen Quigley (Northeastern)

In this talk, I will present a predictive processing view of how a brain together with its body makes meaning of its current array of sense data in the context of its past experience. A brain’s main job is allostasis – the predictive regulation of the body, where prediction serves to enhance the organism’s energetic efficiency. Allostasis requires input both from the world outside the body (via exteroception), and also from the body’s internal milieu, which is called interoception. In addition, the brain can move parts of the body and coordinate multiple internal signals in ways that further take advantage of the brain’s predictions in the moment (also called memories or priors). Using the concepts of allostasis, interoception and active sensing, I will suggest that these processes are important for understanding how a brain and its body work together to create mental life.