[PHILOS-L] Next Session of the Empirically Informed Philosophy of Mind online Seminar

[Sacha Behrend]

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Dear colleagues,

We are pleased to invite you to the next session of the Empirically Informed Philosophy of Mind online Seminar to be held on Wednesday, July 16th from 5 pm to 6:30 pm (CET) at the following link:
https://pantheonsorbonne.zoom.us/j/92782580594?pwd=a5p3WfunQQxJICrjJaUenFJFzmllbx.1

We will welcome Hugo Bottemane, Psychiatrist & researcher at MOOD Center Paris-Saclay | Institut du Cerveau, for the following presentation :

 

Are Probabilistic Beliefs Mental States? Bridging Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology

 

Depression is characterized by negative, self-referential beliefs that are resistant to revision. Although these beliefs are central to depressive symptomatology and constitute a key determinant of suicide risk, the mechanisms underlying them remain poorly understood, partly due to the absence of an integrative theoretical framework capable of linking their phenomenological and neurocognitive dimensions. We propose a naturalistic conception of belief grounded in the hierarchical dynamics of neural processing. On this basis, we formulate a belief updating model compatible with the predictive processing framework in neuroscience, linking sub-propositional, implicit, probabilistic belief states to explicit propositional states. We then develop a neurocognitive theory of the formation and revision of depressive beliefs. We identify several updating biases: a valence bias, which assigns excessive weight to negative bottom-up signals over positive ones during revision processes; a metabelief bias, reflecting an alteration in the weighting of prior precision, leading to inferential inflexibility; a cognitive feedback lock, which reduces the influence of exteroceptive signals in favor of cognitive content; heuristic strategies for reducing cognitive dissonance; and finally, neurocognitive alterations affecting information processing. We show that these distortions in information processing, which are sensitive to environmental context, contribute to the emergence and stabilization of depressive beliefs. Finally, we show that monoaminergic antidepressants modulate the valence bias by acting on bottom-up signals, whereas rapid-acting treatments such as ketamine act on the weighting of prior precision, facilitating inferential reconfiguration at higher hierarchical levels. This model opens up new perspectives for the development of therapeutic strategies targeting belief revision processes at the intersection of pharmacology, psychotherapy, and computational neuroscience.

 

The description and the program of the seminar are at the bottom of the mail.

For any questions, please contact Sacha Behrend (sachabeh...@gmail.com) or Elodie Boissard (Elodie....@univ-paris1.fr)

We look forward to seeing you,

Sacha Behrend, PhD, Université Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne, CNRS, IHPST, Paris, France
Elodie Boissard, PhD, Université Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne, CNRS, IHPST, Paris, France

Description
This seminar series explores novel research in philosophy of mind, emphasizing "empirically informed" approaches. These approaches bridge analytic philosophy and empirical sciences such as cognitive science, neuroscience and psychiatry, providing new insights into specific mental phenomena. By combining conceptual analysis with empirical findings, these methodologies foster reciprocal contributions between philosophy and the sciences. The seminar aims to unite researchers, creating a collaborative community to showcase the dynamism of these interdisciplinary methods.

 

Schedule:

· 5 February 2025: Steve Humbert-Droz (Umea University)
“Emotional Intelligence. Neither a Trait nor an Ability”

· 5 March 2025: Mathilde Cappelli (Thumos, Université de Genève)
“The Enigmatic Conative Nature of Fantasy”

· 2 April 2025: Nadine Meertens (CVBE, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München)
“Comparative AI: Towards a Dimensional Framework of Artificial Awareness”

· 7 May 2025: Azenet Lopez (CVBE, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München)
“Integrated Information Theory and the Windows of Conscious Integration”

· 4 June 2025: Matias Osta Velez (Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf)

"Psychological plausibility, concepts, and similarity spaces"

· 16 July 2025: Hugo Bottemanne (Université Paris-Saclay, Institut du Cerveau)
“Are Probabilistic Beliefs Mental States? Bridging Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology”

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