Contextual perception under active inference.

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Computational Psychiatry
• Social Psychology

Background:

• Human social interactions rely on understanding others' mental states.
• Context is critical for accurate mental state attribution, influencing sensory perception.
• Previous research highlights the complexity of social cognition and its neural underpinnings.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce and validate a novel mental state attribution task.
• To investigate the influence of social context on emotion perception.
• To model how context alters sensory perception using active inference.

Main Methods:

• Developed a mental state attribution task with target faces in varying social contexts.
• Employed active inference models to simulate agent perception.
• Analyzed simulation data for effects of context congruency and facial expression coherence.

Main Results:

• Simulations demonstrated that context congruency and facial expression coherence enhance behavioral performance (decision times).
• Active inference models showed that social context can alter sensory perception.
• Abnormal viewing strategies in schizophrenia may stem from imbalanced feature precision and impaired contextual modulation.

Conclusions:

• Social context plays a crucial role in modulating perception and mental state attribution.
• Active inference provides a framework for understanding context-dependent perception.
• Findings offer insights into the mechanisms underlying schizophrenia and potential therapeutic targets.