Adam Safron

Johns Hopkins Medicine | JHUSOM

The Free Energy Principle and Active Inference Framework (FEP-AI) begins with the understanding that persisting systems must regulate environmental exchanges and prevent entropic accumulation. In FEP-AI, minds and brains are predictive controllers for autonomous systems, where action-driven perception is realized as probabilistic inference. Integra...

How is it that psychedelics so profoundly impact brain and mind? According to the highly influential model of "Relaxed Beliefs Under Psychedelics" (REBUS) (Carhart-Harris and Friston, 2019), 5-HT2a agonism is thought to help relax prior expectations, so making room for new perspectives and patterns. This model is contextualized within the Free Ener...

Simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) represents a fundamental problem for autonomous embodied systems, for which the hippocampal/entorhinal system (H/E-S) has been optimized over the course of evolution. We have developed a biologically-inspired SLAM architecture based on latent variable generative modeling within the Free Energy Principle...

In this theoretical review, we begin by discussing brains and minds from a dynamical systems perspective, and then go on to describe methods for characterizing the flexibility of dynamic networks. We discuss how varying degrees and kinds of flexibility may be adaptive (or maladaptive) in different contexts, specifically focusing on measures related...

Intelligence has been operationalized as both goal-pursuit capacity across a broad range of environments, and also as learning capacity above and beyond a foundational set of core priors. Within the normative framework of AIXI, intelligence may be understood as capacities for compressing (and thereby predicting) data and achieving goals via program...

Introduction: Synchronous behaviors between individuals are nonverbal signs of closeness and common purpose. In the flow from initial attraction to intimate sexual interaction, attention and synchrony move from distal to proximal to interactive and are mediated by sensitized activation of neural systems for sexual motivation, arousal, and desire a...

Psychedelic therapy has seen a resurgence of interest in the past decade, with promising clinical outcomes for treatment of a variety of psychopathologies. In response to this success, a number of theoretical models have been proposed to account for psychedelic's positive therapeutic effects. One of the more prominent models is `RElaxed Beliefs Und...

This paper presents a model of consciousness that follows directly from the free-energy principle (FEP). We first rehearse the classical and quantum formulations of the FEP. In particular, we consider the inner screen hypothesis that follows from the quantum information theoretic version of the FEP. We then review applications of the FEP to the kno...

Consciousness is constituted by a structure that includes contents as foreground and the environment as background. This structural relation between the experiential foreground and background presupposes a relationship between the brain and the environment, often neglected in theories of consciousness. The temporo-spatial theory of consciousness ad...

Symmetry is a motif featuring in almost all areas of science. Symmetries appear throughout the natural world, making them particularly important in our quest to understand the structure of the world around us. Symmetries and invariances are often first principles pointing to some lawful description of an observation, with explanations being underst...

Our culture and its scientific endeavor direly need a holistic characterization of mind and body. Many phenomena attest to the profound effects of beliefs on bodily function (e.g., open-label placebo’s effects on chronic pain) and interoceptive systems’ role in mental processes (e.g., the emerging role of gut microbiomes in mood). We need a mechani...

Intelligence has been operationalized as both goal-pursuit capacity across a broad range of environments, and also as learning capacity above and beyond a foundational set of core priors. Within the normative framework of AIXI, intelligence may be understood as capacities for compressing (and thereby predicting) data and achieving goals via program...

Humanity faces multiple existential risks in the coming decades due to technological advances in AI, and the possibility of unintended behaviors emerging from such systems. We believe that better outcomes may be possible by rigorously exploring frameworks for intelligent (goal-oriented) behavior inspired by computational neuroscience. Here, we expl...

Consciousness is characterized by a structure of foreground contents and an environmental background. This structure presupposes a relationship between the brain and the environment neglected in many neuroscientific theories of consciousness. One neuroscientific theory of consciousness that addresses the brain-environment relation is the Temporo-Sp...

Integrated world modeling theory (IWMT) is a synthetic theory of consciousness that uses the free energy principle and active inference (FEP-AI) framework to combine insights from integrated information theory (IIT) and global neuronal workspace theory (GNWT). Here, I first review philosophical principles and neural systems contributing to IWMT’s i...

In this chapter we review some of the multifarious roles of synchrony in mating psychology. We describe how synchronous dynamics contribute to the coherence of nervous systems; early bonding and development; and sexual and romantic relationships. While it is difficult to do justice to such a deep topic in a single chapter, we have attempted to prov...

Here we consider psychedelics with respect to their mechanisms of action, use, and implications for our understandings of brain and mind. This review is somewhat nontraditional in its scope, with discussions of both basic facts as well as theoretical speculations. We chose this approach given the unique historical context we find ourselves in at pr...

Humanity faces multiple existential risks in the coming decades due to technological advances in AI, and the possibility of unintended behaviors emerging from such systems. We believe that better outcomes may be possible by rigorously exploring frameworks for intelligent (goal-oriented) behavior inspired by computational neuroscience. Here, we expl...

Simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) represents a fundamental problem for autonomous embodied systems, for which the hippocampal/entorhinal system (H/E-S) has been optimized over the course of evolution. We have developed a biologically-inspired SLAM architecture based on latent variable generative modeling within the Free Energy Principle...

Is sexual orientation an evolutionary adaptation or social construct? With respect to sexual preferences, to what extent are we “born that way” and to what extent does learning matter? This chapter discusses how nature and nurture may interact to shape sexual motivation by reviewing existing literature on sexual preferences and orientations, as wel...

Marek et al. analyzed three very large magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) datasets and concluded that thousands of participants are necessary to ensure replicable results in “brain-wide associations studies,” which they defined as “studies of the associations between common inter-individual variability in human brain structure/function and cognition...

Across times and cultures, humans constantly and intentionally tried to 'lose' or to 'escape' their familiar, ordinary self, to 'self-detach' and to radically change the ways of perceiving oneself and the world. In this paper we explore the contrast between the feeling of 'losing' the sense of familiarity with one's self and body in Depersonalisati...

Most theoretical and empirical discussions about the nature of consciousness are typically couched in a way that endorses a tacit adult-centric and vision-based perspective. This paper defends the idea that consciousness science may be put on a fruitful track for its next phase by examining the nature of subjective experiences through a bottom-up d...

One's ability to learn a generative model of the world without supervision depends on the extent to which one can construct abstract knowledge representations that generalize across experiences. To this end, capturing an accurate statistical structure from observational data provides useful inductive biases that can be transferred to novel environm...

Abstract deadline: June 1, 2021. Paper deadline: October 1, 2021. Please see: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/20474/bio-ai---from-embodied-cognition-to-enactive-robotics

Relative to other neuromodulators, serotonin (5-HT) has received far less attention in machine learning and active inference. We will review prior work interpreting 5-HT1a signaling as an uncertainty parameter with opponency to dopamine. We will then discuss how 5-HT2a receptors may promote more exploratory policy selection by enhancing imaginative...

In this study, we attempted to replicate past work focusing on differences in neuroanatomical structures between heterosexual and homosexual men and women. We also performed the first analyses of sexual orientation and neuroanatomy to include bisexual men and women. Sex differences in raw subcortical volumes were consistent with past work and a bro...

A small number of studies have examined neuroanatomical differences between heterosexual and homosexual men and women. These studies have yielded mixed support for the hypothesis that homosexual individuals possess sex-atypical neural anatomy. However, in addition to differing along dimensions of sex-typicality, non-heterosexual individuals’ brains...

In this brief commentary on The Hidden Spring: A Journey to the Source of Consciousness, I describe ways in which Mark Solms’ account of the origins of subjective experience relates to Integrated World Modeling Theory (IWMT). IWMT is a synthetic theory that brings together different perspectives, with the ultimate goal of solving the enduring probl...

Integrated World Modeling Theory (IWMT) is a synthetic theory of consciousness that uses the Free Energy Principle and Active Inference (FEP-AI) framework to combine insights from Integrated Information Theory (IIT) and Global Neuronal Workspace Theory (GNWT). Here, I first review philosophical principles and neural systems contributing to IWMT’s i...

Drawing from both enactivist and cognitivist perspectives on mind, I propose that explaining teleological phenomena may require reappraising both “Cartesian theaters” and mental homunculi in terms of embodied self-models (ESMs), understood as body maps with agentic properties, functioning as predictive-memory systems and cybernetic controllers. Qua...

Localization and mapping has been a long standing area of research, both in neuroscience, to understand how mammals navigate their environment, as well as in robotics, to enable autonomous mobile robots. In this paper, we treat navigation as inferring actions that minimize (expected) variational free energy under a hierarchical generative model. We...

In this theoretical review, we begin by discussing brains and minds from a dynamical systems perspective, and then go on to describe methods for characterizing the flexibility of dynamic networks. We discuss how varying degrees and kinds of flexibility may be adaptive (or maladaptive) in different contexts, specifically focusing on measures related...

This paper offers an introduction to conceptual metaphor theory (CMT), rooted in the cognitive linguistics field of study, and its application to art therapy theory and practice. Utilizing comics as a form of further elaboration and explanation, this manuscript is divided into four main sections: 1) an overview of current theories of conceptual met...

This paper argues that consciousness science may be put on a fruitful track for its future evolution by endorsing a bottom-up developmental perspective. Specifically, we propose to go back to ‘square one’ and to examine the nature of subjective experiences as they emerge in early human life, in utero. We build upon the observation that current theo...

What do we mean when we talk of “free will?” What are the “varieties of free will worth having” (Dennett, 2003), and to what extent can we be said to possess such capabilities? While preferred definitions may vary across individuals and situations, we may perhaps find broad agreement that free will indicates a capacity for conscious intentions to m...

Cybernetics is the study of goal-directed systems that self-regulate via feedback, a category that includes human beings. Cybernetic Big Five Theory (CB5T) attempts to explain personality in cybernetic terms, conceptualizing personality traits as manifestations of variation in parameters of the neural mechanisms that evolved to facilitate cyberneti...

Relative to other neuromodulators, serotonin (5-HT) has received far less attention in machine learning and active inference. We will review prior work interpreting 5-HT1a signaling as an uncertainty parameter with opponency to dopamine. We will then discuss how 5-HT2a receptors may promote more exploratory policy selection by enhancing imaginative...

Integrated World Modeling Theory (IWMT) is a synthetic model that attempts to unify theories of consciousness within the Free Energy Principle and Active Inference framework, with particular emphasis on Integrated Information Theory (IIT) and Global Neuronal Workspace Theory (GNWT). IWMT further suggests predictive processing in sensory hierarchies...

Is sexual orientation an evolutionary adaptation or social construct? With respect to sexual preferences, to what extent are we "born that way" and to what extent does learning matter? This chapter discusses how nature and nurture may interact to shape sexual motivation by reviewing existing literature on sexual preferences and orientations, as wel...

Cybernetics is the study of goal-directed systems that self-regulate via feedback, a category that includes human beings. Cybernetic Big Five Theory (CB5T) attempts to explain personality in cybernetic terms, conceptualizing personality traits as manifestations of variation in parameters of the neural mechanisms that evolved to facilitate cyberneti...

Integrated World Modeling Theory (IWMT) is a synthetic model that attempts to unify theories of consciousness within the Free Energy Principle and Active Inference framework, with particular emphasis on Integrated Information Theory (IIT) and Global Neuronal Workspace Theory (GNWT). IWMT further suggests predictive processing in sensory hierarchies...

Significance There has long been skepticism among both scientists and laypersons that male bisexual orientation exists. Skeptics have claimed that men who self-identify as bisexual are actually homosexual or heterosexual. (The existence of female bisexuality has been less controversial.) This controversy can be resolved using objective, genital res...

Ketamine exerts rapid antidepressant effects peaking 24 h after a single infusion, which have been suggested to be reflected by both reduced functional connectivity (FC) within default mode network (DMN) and altered glutamatergic levels in the perigenual anterior cingulate cortex (pgACC) at 24 h. Understanding the interrelation and time point speci...

Patterns of genital arousal in response to gendered sexual stimuli (i.e., sexual stimuli presenting members of only one sex at a time) are more predictive of men’s than of women’s sexual orientations. Additional lines of evidence may shed light on the nature of these differences. We measured neural activation in homosexual and heterosexual men and...

The Free Energy Principle and Active Inference Framework (FEP-AI) begins with the understanding that persisting systems must regulate environmental exchanges and prevent entropic accumulation. In FEP-AI, minds and brains are predictive controllers for autonomous systems, where action-driven perception is realized as probabilistic inference. Integra...

Here, I provide clarifications and discuss further issues relating to Safron (2020), “An Integrated World Modeling Theory (IWMT) of consciousness: Combining Integrated Information and Global Workspace Theories with the Free Energy Principle and Active Inference Framework; towards solving the Hard problem and characterizing agentic causation”. As a...

Drawing from both enactivist and cognitivist perspectives on mind, I propose that explaining teleological phenomena may require reappraising both “Cartesian theaters” and mental homunculi in terms of embodied self-models (ESMs), understood as body maps with agentic properties, functioning as predictive-memory systems and cybernetic controllers. Qua...

It has been argued that all of cognition can be understood in terms of Bayesian inference. It has also been argued that analogy is the core of cognition. Here I will propose that these perspectives are fully compatible, in that analogical reasoning can be described in terms of Bayesian inference and vice versa, and that both of these positions requ...

I propose a potentially novel theory of humor as the feeling of Rapid Anxiety Reduction (RAR). According to RAR, humor can be expressed in a simple formula: -d(A)/dt. RAR has strong correspondences with False Alarm Theory, Benign Violation Theory, and Cognitive Debugging Theory, all of which represent either special cases or partial descriptions at...

What is motivation and how does it work? Where do goals come from and how do they vary within and between species and individuals? Why do we prefer some things over others? MEDO is a theoretical framework for understanding these questions in abstract terms, as well as for generating and evaluating specific hypotheses that seek to explain goal-orien...

Article on Sexual Orientation for the Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science.

We used fMRI to investigate neural correlates of responses to erotic pictures and videos in heterosexual (N = 26), bisexual (N = 26), and homosexual (N = 24) women, ages 25–50. We focused on the ventral striatum, an area of the brain associated with desire, extending previous findings from the sexual psychophysiology literature in which homosexual...

Abnormal anterior insula (AI) response and functional connectivity (FC) is associated with depression. In addition to clinical features, such as severity, AI FC and its metabolism further predicted therapeutic response. Abnormal FC between anterior cingulate and AI covaried with reduced glutamate level within cingulate cortex. Recently, deficient g...

Studies of subjective and genital sexual arousal in monosexual (i.e. heterosexual and homosexual) men have repeatedly found that erotic stimuli depicting men’s preferred sex produce strong responses, whereas erotic stimuli depicting the other sex produce much weaker responses. Inconsistent results have previously been obtained in bisexual men, who...

Orgasm is one of the most intense pleasures attainable to an organism, yet its underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood. On the basis of existing literatures, this article introduces a novel mechanistic model of sexual stimulation and orgasm. In doing so, it characterizes the neurophenomenology of sexual trance and climax, describes parallels...

No abstract available. (Published: 25 October 2016) Citation: Socioaffective Neuroscience & Psychology 2016, 6 : 33598 - http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/snp.v6.33598 This paper is part of the Special Issue: Orgasm: Neurophysiological, Psychological, and Evolutionary Perspectives . More papers from this issue can be found at www.socioaffectiveneuroscipsyc...

New strategies are needed to help people cope with the repercussions of neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's disease. Patients and caregivers face different challenges, but here we investigated an intervention tailored for this combined population. The program focused on training skills such as attending to the present moment nonjudgment...

Addiction is the compulsive engagement with an activity despite recognition of undesirable consequences. Although seemingly straightforward, discussions of addiction are often controversial, touching on people’s beliefs about the nature of responsibility and what constitutes healthy or unhealthy behavior. In this debate, positions have ranged from...

Most men have a category-specific pattern of genital and subjective sexual arousal, responding much more strongly to erotic stimuli depicting their preferred sex than to erotic stimuli depicting their nonpreferred sex. In contrast, women tend to have a less specific arousal pattern. To better understand this sex difference, we used neuroimaging to...

Distinct thalamic nuclei, like the mediodorsal (MD) nucleus and the centromedian/parafascicular complex (CM/Pf), are embedded in different basal ganglia—thalamocortical loops, which were shown to integrate cognitive and emotional aspects of human behavior. Despite well described connections on a microscopic scale, derived from tracing studies in an...

We (your guest editors) have established a productive professional and personal relationship through discussions of the role of experience and, in particular, basic learning processes in shaping sexuality in humans and animals. We are grateful to Harold Mouras as well as our contributors for allowing us to organize this special issue of Socioaffect...

Self-identified bisexual men report high sexual arousal to both male and female stimuli, but no study to date has compellingly demonstrated that such men have a bisexual pattern of genital arousal. We examined sexual arousal patterns among bisexual men recruited using stringent criteria designed to exclude those who were less likely to have sexual...

Men exhibit much higher levels of genital and subjective arousal to sexual stimuli containing their preferred sex than they do to stimuli containing only the nonpreferred sex. This study used event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate how this category-specific pattern would be reflected in the brains of homosexual (n = 11)...