A Predictive Coding Framework for Understanding Major Depression

Abstract

Predictive coding models of brain processing propose that top-down cortical signals promote efficient neural signaling by carrying predictions about incoming sensory information. These “priors” serve to constrain bottom-up signal propagation where prediction errors are carried via feedforward mechanisms. Depression, traditionally viewed as a disorder characterized by negative cognitive biases, is associated with disrupted reward prediction error encoding and signaling. Accumulating evidence also suggests that depression is characterized by impaired local and long-range prediction signaling across multiple sensory domains. This review highlights the electrophysiological and neuroimaging evidence for disrupted predictive processing in depression. The discussion is framed around the manner in which disrupted generative predictions about the sensorium could lead to depressive symptomatology, including anhedonia and negative bias. In particular, the review focuses on studies of sensory deviance detection and reward processing, highlighting research evidence for both disrupted generative predictions and prediction error signaling in depression. The role of the monoaminergic and glutamatergic systems in predictive coding processes is also discussed. This review provides a novel framework for understanding depression using predictive coding principles and establishes a foundational roadmap for potential future research.

The effects of coloring therapy on patients with generalized anxiety disorder

“…This not only broadens the scope of diseases treated by coloring but also confirms the effect of coloring therapy on improving depression in patients, similar to the study by Bosman et al 29 However, the existing studies on the mechanism of action of coloring treatment to alleviate depressive symptoms in GAD patients are unclear. It has been proposed 32 that dysfunctional reinforcement learning processes and dysregulated reward circuits may partially underlie the pathology of depressive symptoms, mainly manifested by a lack of pleasure or hypersensitivity to reward, with key neural regions, including the lateral rein nucleus, ventral tegmental area, and substantia nigra, and that the severity of pleasure deficit modulates the relationship between reward expectancy and reward prediction error signals in the ventral striatum; specifically, the presence of individuals with severe pleasure deficit symptoms may have deficits in aspects related to reward learning, and patients with low reward sensitivity better understand reward prediction error signals in reward tasks; therefore, patients with depressive symptoms require more refined and targeted psychotherapeutic interventions. In our study, patients with GAD used their preferred colors and patterns for coloring creations, which not only provided a certain amount of pleasure in the short repetitive actions but also expressed stressful events related to the disease through their chosen colors, patterns, and coloring trajectories, which in turn assisted the psychotherapist in providing targeted psychotherapeutic solutions, ultimately achieving the effect of reducing depression.…”

“…This not only broadens the scope of diseases treated by coloring but also confirms the effect of coloring therapy on improving depression in patients, similar to the study by Bosman et al 29 However, the existing studies on the mechanism of action of coloring treatment to alleviate depressive symptoms in GAD patients are unclear. It has been proposed 32 In addition to mood disorders, depressed patients are found to have cognitive impairment, which is attributed to the abnormal reduction in the left dorsolateral prefrontal function involved in the regulation of positive emotions in depressed patients. 33 However, Silvia's 34 study found that coloring activities, in which participants integrated existing patterns and colors into new works of art, improved their creative thinking and cognitive abilities, and Daudén Roquet and Sas's 35 study also showed that coloring therapy engages patients fully in coloring activities, which can improve colorists' insight and revisit these negative emotional experiences, ultimately achieving a reduction in depressed mood.…”

Brain–heart dynamics during emotional processing under uncertain conditions: An index of depression risk

“…Disruptions of the ANS can induce inflammation (85) and metabolic dysregulation (86). Low sensitivity to interoceptive signals may lead to disrupted predictive coding of interoceptive signals (19, 87), which is crucial to emotional processing and allostatic regulation.…”

I like therefore I can, and I can therefore I like: the role of self-efficacy and affect in active inference of allostasis

“…Depression has been conceptualized as a disorder of inference by several researchers (reviewed recently in Gilbert et al, 2022 ). Some of these theories focused in particular on dysregulation of allostasis as the basis of depressive etiology ( Barrett et al, 2016 ; Stephan et al, 2016 ; Arnaldo et al, 2022 ).…”