Relative fluency (unfelt vs felt) in active inference.

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Cognitive Science
• Philosophy of Mind

Background:

• The brain operates as a predictive organ, constantly forecasting sensory information and the precision of its own predictions.
• Inferring the reliability of internal beliefs is crucial for the brain to predict the precision of its predictions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose that subjective fluency arises from the brain's recognition of its prediction precision.
• To investigate the role of changes in fluency (from unfelt to felt) in updating precision predictions.

Main Methods:

• Theoretical framework integrating predictive processing with the concept of fluency.
• Analysis of how fluency influences attentional mechanisms and perceptual inference.

Main Results:

• Fluency is identified as the product of recognizing prediction precision, signifying a confident 'grip' on sensory processes.
• Changes in fluency, specifically from unfelt to felt, are recognized and realized during precision prediction updates.
• Unfelt fluency directs attention to unexpected sensations, while felt fluency contextualizes these sensations, making attention phenomenologically opaque.

Conclusions:

• Fluency underpins the precision attributed to predictions, directly impacting perceptual inferences.
• Conscious subjective inference is rooted in unconscious perceptual precursors, mediated by fluency.
• This framework offers a novel understanding of how the brain achieves subjective certainty and guides perception.