The first comprehensive treatment of active inference, an integrative perspective on brain, cognition, and behavior used across multiple disciplines. Active inference is a way of understanding sentient behavior--a theory that characterizes perception, planning, and action in terms of probabilistic inference. Developed by theoretical neuroscientist Karl Friston over years of groundbreaking research, active inference provides an integrated perspective on brain, cognition, and behavior that is increasingly used across multiple disciplines including neuroscience, psychology, and philosophy. Active inference puts the action into perception. This book offers the first comprehensive treatment of active inference, covering theory, applications, and cognitive domains.; Active inference is a “first principles” approach to understanding behavior and the brain, framed in terms of a single imperative to minimize free energy. The book emphasizes the implications of the free energy principle for understanding how the brain works. It first introduces active inference both conceptually and formally, contextualizing it within current theories of cognition. It then provides specific examples of computational models that use active inference to explain such cognitive phenomena as perception, attention, memory, and planning.

Autorentext

Thomas Parr, Giovanni Pezzulo, and Karl J. Friston

Inhalt

Preface vii

1. Overview 3
2. The Low Road to Active Inference 15
3. The High Road to Active Inference 41
4. The Generative Models of Active Inference 63
5. Message Passing and Neurobiology 85
6. A Recipe for Designing Active Inference Models 105
7. Active Inference in Discrete Time 125
8. Active Inference in Continuous Time 153
9. Model-based Data Analysis 173
10. Active Inference as a Unified Theory of Sentient Behavior 191
    Appendix A – Mathematical Background 225
    Appendix B – The Equations of Active Inference 243
    Appendix C – An Annotated Example of the Matlab Code 259
    Notes 267
    References 273
    Index 295