Predictive Processing of Interoception, Decision-Making, and Allostasis: A Computational Framework and Implications for Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence is composed of a set of emotional abilities, including recognition of emotional states in the self and others, the use of emotions to guide thoughts and behaviours, and emotion regulation. Previous studies have demonstrated that emotional intelligence is associated with mental health, social problem solving, interpersonal relationship quality, and academic and job performance. Although emotional intelligence has received much interest both in basic research fields and applied and clinical fields, the mechanisms underlying the functions of emotional intelligence remain unclear. The aim of the present article was to consider the mechanisms of emotional intelligence using a computational approach. Recent theories of emotion in psychology and neuroscience have emphasized the importance of predictive processing. It has been proposed that the brain createsinternal models that can provide predictions for sensation and motor movement, and perception and behaviors emerge from Bayesian computations rooted in these predictions. This theoretical framework has been expanded to include interoceptive perception of the internal body to explain affect and decision-making as phenomena based on interoception. This perspective has implications for understanding issues of emotional intelligence

Regulación de funciones del cerebro y el cuerpo según el principio de codificación predictiva: Implicaciones para la discapacidad del eje cerebro-intestino

Lisa Feldman-Barrett, who has promoted a psychological constructivism theory of affect, recently proposed the Embodied Predictive Interoception Coding (EPIC) model of affect, based on the perspective of predictive coding. The theoretical framework of predictive coding argues that the brain creates inner models that can provide predictions for perception and motor movement, and that perception and behaviors emerge from Bayesian computations rooted in these predictions. The EPIC model expands this framework to interoception, which is perception of the inner body, and tries to explain the phenomena of affect as integrative experiences based on interoception. This perspective provides important implications for understanding issues of the brain–gut axis and its impairments.Lisa Feldman-Barrett, que promovió la teoría constructivista del afecto, recientemente ha propuesto el modelo de afecto la Codificación predictiva incorporada de la interocepción (EPIC), basado en la perspectiva de la codificación predictiva. El marco teórico de la codificación predictiva discute los hechos de que el cerebro crea modelos internos que puedan facilitar predicciones para la percepción y las habilidades motoras, y de que la percepción y la conducta surgen de los cálculos bayesianos que se basan en estas predicciones. El modelo EPIC expande este marco a la interocepción – la percepción del cuerpo interno, y trata de explicar el fenómeno de afecto como experiencia integrativa basada en la interocepción. Esta perspectiva ofrece implicaciones importantes para entender los problemas del eje cerebro-intestino y sus discapacidades

Beneficial Roles of Emotion in Decision Making: Functional Association of Brain and Body

Though traditional microeconomics has supposed that human decisions are based on logical and exact computation of cost-benefit balances or efficacies, studies in behavioral economics have shown that humans sometimes make seemingly irrational decisions driven by emotions. In our everyday situations, factors related to decisions are complex and which alternative will be the most beneficial is uncertain. In such cases, emotions have been thought adaptive because they can quickly reduce negative alternatives and facilitate fast and effective decision making. Some theorists argued that one of important sources of such emotional drives affecting decision making is bodily responses that are represented in brain regions (Craig, 2009; Damasio, 1994). In this article, empirical evidence for the functional associations of the brain and body accompanying decision making will be shown as follows. (1) Heart rate responses and concentration of inflammatory cytokine (IL-6) can predict acceptance or rejection of an unfair offer in an economical negotiation game, the Ultimatum Game. Activation of the anterior insula mediates relationship between bodily states and decision making. (2) Sympathetic responses reflected by secretion of adrenaline are represented in brain regions such as the midbrain, anterior cingulate cortex, and anterior insula, and furthermore can determine exploration of decision making in a situation where an action-outcome contingency is stochastic and unstable. These findings suggest beneficial roles of emotion and bodily responses in decision making

Analysis of high-resolution foreign exchange data of USD-JPY for 13 years

We analyze high-resolution foreign exchange data consisting of 20 million data points of USD-JPY for 13 years to report firm statistical laws in distributions and correlations of exchange rate fluctuations. A conditional probability density analysis clearly shows the existence of trend-following movements at time scale of 8-ticks, about 1 minute.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figures, submitted to Physica

Prolonged Effects of Acute Stress on Decision-Making under Risk: A Human Psychophysiological Study

This study investigates the prolonged effects of physiological responses induced by acute stress on risk-taking in decision-making. Participants were divided into a Stress group (N = 14) and a Control group (N = 12). The Trier Social Stress Test was administered as an acute stressor, and reading was administered as a control task; thereafter, participants performed a decision-making task in which they needed to choose a sure option or a gamble option in Gain and Loss frame trials 2 hours after (non-) exposure to the stressor. Increased cortisol, adrenaline, heart rate (HR), and subjective stress levels validated acute stress manipulation. Stressed participants made fewer risky choices only in the Gain domain, whereas no effect of stress was shown in the Loss domain. Deceleration of HR reflecting attention was greater for Gains compared with Losses only in the Stress group. Risk avoidance was determined by increased levels of cortisol caused by acute stress. These results suggest that processes regarding glucocorticoid might be involved in the prolonged effects of acute stress on the evaluation of risks and the monitoring of outcomes in decision-making

Low Frequency Ultrasonic Array Imaging using Signal Post-processing for Concrete Material

The use of ultrasonic arrays for conducting non-destructive evaluation has been drastically increased in recent years. As one of the array imaging, a post-processing beam-forming technique has been proposed that utilizes a complete set of signals of all combinations of transmission and reception elements. This approach is referred to as full matrix capture (FMC) [1]. In FMC, each array element is sequentially used as an emitter and all other array elements are used as receivers. By changing the emitting element, we obtained a set of flaw signals that was used to form the focal beam. The delay-and-sum beam reconstruction based on the post-processing was applied to imaging of internal voids and reinforced steel bars in concrete material. The reconstruction of voids and steels in concrete specimen (400mm x 400mm x 400 mm) was demonstrated using a phased array transducer in the low frequency range. In this study, the array transducer with total 16 elements and center frequency of 50 kHz was developed. The volume fraction of aggregates in concrete was 70 %, and the maximum size of the coarse aggregate was 20 mm. Figure 1 shows the reconstruction result of a slit. For on-site inspection, we introduced a graphics processing unit (GPU) computation to accelerate the post-processing of beam-forming [2]. The flaw detection time was approximately 0.15 s using Geforce GTX880M (NVIDIA)

Reinforcement Learning With Parsimonious Computation and a Forgetting Process

Decision-making is assumed to be supported by model-free and model-based systems: the model-free system is based purely on experience, while the model-based system uses a cognitive map of the environment and is more accurate. The recently developed multistep decision-making task and its computational model can dissociate the contributions of the two systems and have been used widely. This study used this task and model to understand our value-based learning process and tested alternative algorithms for the model-free and model-based learning systems. The task used in this study had a deterministic transition structure, and the degree of use of this structure in learning is estimated as the relative contribution of the model-based system to choices. We obtained data from 29 participants and fitted them with various computational models that differ in the model-free and model-based assumptions. The results of model comparison and parameter estimation showed that the participants update the value of action sequences and not each action. Additionally, the model fit was improved substantially by assuming that the learning mechanism includes a forgetting process, where the values of unselected options change to a certain default value over time. We also examined the relationships between the estimated parameters and psychopathology and other traits measured by self-reported questionnaires, and the results suggested that the difference in model assumptions can change the conclusion. In particular, inclusion of the forgetting process in the computational models had a strong impact on estimation of the weighting parameter of the model-free and model-based systems

The Effects of Physiological Arousal and Unconscious Processing of Trait Words upon the Mechanisms of Social Cognition

Two experiments were conducted to examine effects of physiologicalarousal and unconscious processing of trait words on impression formation ofothers. It was predicted that cognitive complexity of others\u27 impression woulddecrease in a high arousal state because attentional resource might be restrictedin such a state. Furthermore it was hypothesized that the priming effect of traitword processing would be facilitated in a high arousal state. In each experi-ment, subjects rated the impression of a hypothetical target person after theyprocessed hostile, neutral, or friendly words which were presented at a sublimi-nal level in either high or normal arousal state. Results of both experimentsmade it clear that the impression of the person was simpler and more extremein high arousal conditions. However, effects of unconscious priming were notfound in each experiment. These results were discussed in terms of constructsaccessibility\u27 models

Stimulus Balance and Mechanisms of Recognition Memory : An Analysis of Memory Performance and Eyeblink Activity

The present research was conducted to examine the relative roles of recollection or intentional and controlled rocess and familiarity or automatic process in recognition memory of affectively positive and negative stimuli. Twenty subjects performed a memory task based on Jacoby\u27s (1991) process dissociation procedure and their eyeblink activity was assessed as a secondary measure which should reflect inner cognitive processes. Results of memory performance indicated that the role of recollection was lower in recognition of affectively positive items than in recognition of affectively negative items. On the other hand, the role of familiarity was especially high in recogni- tion of positive and high arousal items. In addition, the results of eyeblink activity suggested that the process of memory scanning should be performed longer and probably more repeatedly for the positive and high arousal items in a memory test stage