Fig. 3.

Unconditioned responses. Dynamical control over the equilibrium point of peripheral reflexes rests on descending predictions about proprioceptive or interoceptive input. Peripheral reflexes are now contingent upon top-down predictions that are themselves informed by ascending prediction errors from – in this example – gustatory input. The timing of the various cues may or may not be important. In this cartoon, the temporal contingencies are modelled through interactions between the error (red) and expectation (blue) populations at the top of the hierarchy. In dynamical schemes, these interactions produce an attractor or heteroclinic cycle that models the temporal succession of predicted sensations (here, gustatory and subsequent interoceptive sensations).