| Popis: |
We used a generative model of consciousness, called the Projective Consciousness Model (PCM) from Rudrauf et al. (2017), to simulate behavioral characteristics (related to joint attention and approach/avoidance) of two psychopathological conditions: Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD). We had two complementary aims with this study in silico, based on the manipulation of model's parameters (affecting prior beliefs and perspective taking) and the resulting free energy dynamics. First, we aimed at testing the capacity of the PCM to mathematically implement valid clinical phenomenology. Second, we aimed at exploring whether hidden mechanisms, hypothesized by the current literature to underpin ASD and SAD, could lead to artificial behavior similar to that observed in humans. Our results confirm in simulations the mathematical prediction on the relations between the different parameters. Thus, behaviors reminding of ASD and SAD phenotypes were observed, which encourages future work on the application of the PCM's potential for unifying and relating psychological mechanisms, and contribute to psychological research. |
