What question did this study set out to answer?

The aim is to challenge the perception of emotions as irrational and reintegrate them into a formal theory of active inference.

June 6, 2026Open Access

The Logic of Feeling: Interoception, Psychic States, and the Predictive Algebra of Emotions in the Visceral Node (Cognitive-Informational Domain)

Key Points

The aim is to challenge the perception of emotions as irrational and reintegrate them into a formal theory of active inference.
Examines the Integrated Theory of Mind (TIM) focusing on Node 3 of the Prognostica Mens.
Differentiates between somatic and psychic domains of interoception.
Integrates insights from affective neuroscience to propose a dynamic of emotional valence.
Establishes a neuro-functional fracture in interoception between somatic and psychic domains.
Proposes the concept of 'Expansive Joy' linked to prediction error (Δp) and emotional processing.
Challenges the reductionist view of emotions, specifically critiquing the notion of joy as merely the absence of pain.

Abstract

Abstract This article constitutes the in-depth monograph of the Integrated Theory of Mind (TIM) dedicated to Node 3 of the Prognostica Mens, explored through the lens of the Cognitive-Informational Domain. The aim of this essay is to dismantle the dogma that relegates emotions to the sphere of irrationality, bringing them back to the rigorous formalism of Active Inference, supported by the latest discoveries in affective neuroscience. The text expands the Topological Dichotomy by introducing a neuro-functional fracture within Interoception: the distinction between the Somatic Domain (modular, metric, managed by the Discrete Self) and the Psychic Domain (holistic, where emotions act as Discrete States). Integrating the models of Craig, Damasio, and Panksepp, the article differentiates basic allostatic drives (hypothalamic circuitry) from reactive emotions (amygdala circuitry), ultimately overcoming the reductive paradigm of "joy as the absence of pain." A new dynamic of emotional valence is postulated, which includes "Expansive Joy": the voluntary search for a Prediction Error (Δp) to broaden one's model of the world when the organism has a thermodynamic surplus. Keywords: Integrated Theory of Mind (TIM), Interoception, A.D. Craig, Jaak Panksepp, Allostasis, Prediction Error (Δp), Expansive Valence, Holistic Self.

The Logic of Feeling: Interoception, Psychic States, and the Predictive Algebra of Emotions in the Visceral Node (Cognitive-Informational Domain)

Key Points

Abstract

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