Active Inference in Psychology and Psychiatry: Progress to Date?

The free energy principle is a formal theory of adaptive self-organising systems that emerged from statistical thermodynamics, machine learning and theoretical neuroscience and has since been translated into biologically plausible 'process theories' of cognition and behaviour, which fall under the banner of 'active inference'. Despite the promise this theory holds for theorising, research and practical applications in psychology and psychiatry, its impact on these disciplines has only now begun to bear fruit. The aim of this treatment is to consider the extent to which active inference has informed theoretical progress in psychology, before exploring its contributions to our understanding and treatment of psychopathology.

Applying the Free Energy Principle to Complex Adaptive Systems.

The free energy principle (FEP) is a formulation of the adaptive, belief-driven behaviour of self-organizing systems that gained prominence in the early 2000s as a unified model of the brain [...

Integrating Evolutionary, Cultural, and Computational Psychiatry: A Multilevel Systemic Approach.

This paper proposes an integrative perspective on evolutionary, cultural and computational approaches to psychiatry. These three approaches attempt to frame mental disorders as multiscale entities and offer modes of explanations and modeling strategies that can inform clinical practice. Although each of these perspectives involves systemic thinking, each is limited in its ability to address the complex developmental trajectories and larger social systemic interactions that lead to mental disorders.

Why Depressed Mood is Adaptive: A Numerical Proof of Principle for an Evolutionary Systems Theory of Depression.

We provide a proof of principle for an evolutionary systems theory (EST) of depression. This theory suggests that normative depressive symptoms counter socioenvironmental volatility by increasing interpersonal support via social signalling and that this response depends upon the encoding of uncertainty about social contingencies, which can be targeted by neuromodulatory antidepressants. We simulated agents that committed to a series of decisions in a social two-arm bandit task before and after social adversity, which precipitated depressive symptoms.

Facilitating improvements in young people's social relationships to prevent or treat depression: A review of empirically supported interventions.

Interpersonal difficulties are often implicated in the onset of depressive disorders, and typically exacerbate depressive symptoms. This is particularly true for young people, given rapid changes in, and the increased importance of, their social relationships. The purpose of this narrative review was to identify empirically supported interventions that aim to prevent or treat depression in young people by facilitating improvements in their social environment.

What impact does illness severity have on the sexual health of young people affected by mental health disorders? A comparison of inpatients and outpatients.

Objective: Young people affected by mental health disorders have greater sexual health needs compared to their peers. Less is known about this need across illness severity.

Method: A cross-sectional survey of the sexual health of those attending outpatients or inpatients within a youth mental health service was conducted.

Recent advances in the application of predictive coding and active inference models within clinical neuroscience.

Research in clinical neuroscience is founded on the idea that a better understanding of brain (dys)function will improve our ability to diagnose and treat neurological and psychiatric disorders. In recent years, neuroscience has converged on the notion that the brain is a 'prediction machine,' in that it actively predicts the sensory input that it will receive if one or another course of action is chosen. These predictions are used to select actions that will (most often, and in the long run) maintain the body within the narrow range of physiological states consistent with survival.

A World Unto Itself: Human Communication as Active Inference.

Recent theoretical work in developmental psychology suggests that humans are predisposed to align their mental states with those of other individuals. One way this manifests is in ; that is, intentional communication aimed at aligning individuals' mental states with respect to events in their shared environment. This idea has received strong empirical support.

Principles for designing the built environment of mental health services.

Although there is an increasing amount of literature on the key principles for the design of mental health services, the contribution of the built environment to outcomes for the service user is a largely neglected area. To help address this gap, we present evidence that highlights the pivotal role of evidence-based architectural design in service users' experience of mental health services. We propose six important design principles to enhance the care of mental health service users.

Tinkering with cognitive gadgets: Cultural evolutionary psychology meets active inference.

Cognitive Gadgets offers a new, convincing perspective on the origins of our distinctive cognitive faculties, coupled with a clear, innovative research program. Although we broadly endorse Heyes' ideas, we raise some concerns about her characterisation of evolutionary psychology and the relationship between biology and culture, before discussing the potential fruits of examining cognitive gadgets through the lens of active inference.

The hierarchically mechanistic mind: an evolutionary systems theory of the human brain, cognition, and behavior.

The purpose of this review was to integrate leading paradigms in psychology and neuroscience with a theory of the embodied, situated human brain, called the Hierarchically Mechanistic Mind (HMM). The HMM describes the brain as a complex adaptive system that functions to minimize the entropy of our sensory and physical states via action-perception cycles generated by hierarchical neural dynamics. First, we review the extant literature on the hierarchical structure of the brain.

The hierarchically mechanistic mind: A free-energy formulation of the human psyche.

This article presents a unifying theory of the embodied, situated human brain called the Hierarchically Mechanistic Mind (HMM). The HMM describes the brain as a complex adaptive system that actively minimises the decay of our sensory and physical states by producing self-fulfilling action-perception cycles via dynamical interactions between hierarchically organised neurocognitive mechanisms. This theory synthesises the free-energy principle (FEP) in neuroscience with an evolutionary systems theory of psychology that explains our brains, minds, and behaviour by appealing to Tinbergen's four questions: adaptation, phylogeny, ontogeny, and mechanism.

Variational ecology and the physics of sentient systems.

This paper addresses the challenges faced by multiscale formulations of the variational (free energy) approach to dynamics that obtain for large-scale ensembles. We review a framework for modelling complex adaptive control systems for multiscale free energy bounding organism-niche dynamics, thereby integrating the modelling strategies and heuristics of variational neuroethology with a broader perspective on the ecological nestedness of biotic systems. We extend the multiscale variational formulation beyond the action-perception loops of individual organisms by appealing to the variational approach to niche construction to explain the dynamics of coupled systems constituted by organisms and their ecological niche.

High-risk sexual behaviour in young people with mental health disorders.

Aim: This study aimed to determine the prevalence of high-risk sexual behaviours, sequelae and associated factors in young people attending a youth mental health service.

Methods: The study design was a cross-sectional survey of 103 young people aged between 15-25 years carried out across four specialist mental health clinics. A questionnaire on the sexual health of secondary level students was adapted for this study.

Answering Schrödinger's question: A free-energy formulation.

The free-energy principle (FEP) is a formal model of neuronal processes that is widely recognised in neuroscience as a unifying theory of the brain and biobehaviour. More recently, however, it has been extended beyond the brain to explain the dynamics of living systems, and their unique capacity to avoid decay. The aim of this review is to synthesise these advances with a meta-theoretical ontology of biological systems called variational neuroethology, which integrates the FEP with Tinbergen's four research questions to explain biological systems across spatial and temporal scales.