Predictive Coding and the Sense of Self

So far, we have restricted ourselves to perceptual synthesis in the exteroceptive (i.e., visual) domain. However, exactly the same arguments may apply to perceptual inference and ensuing consciousness of the physiologic state of the body (interoception). Crucially, interoceptive inference may underlie emotions and feelings: our “sentient self” (the material me) would therefore be constituted by successive interoceptive predictions, which are thought to be updated within the insula (and anterior cingulate cortex).14 This model of interoception as a predictive process reconciles the James-Lange/Damasio somatic marker model of consciousness and models involving cortical influences. The James-Lange/Damasio somatic marker model argues that the mental self is anchored in the internal state of the body and that emotions arise from the (continuous) perceptions of changes in the body.

--from Fabienne Picard, MD and Karl Friston, PhD: Predictions, perception, and a sense of self, in press in Neurology for this year.