Cargando…

Predictive Technologies: Can Smart Tools Augment the Brain's Predictive Abilities?

The ability of “looking into the future”—namely, the capacity of anticipating future states of the environment or of the body—represents a fundamental function of human (and animal) brains. A goalkeeper who tries to guess the ball's direction; a chess player who attempts to anticipate the oppon...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Pezzulo, Giovanni, D'Ausilio, Alessandro, Gaggioli, Andrea
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4846798/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27199648
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2016.00186
_version_ 1782429104685973504
author Pezzulo, Giovanni
D'Ausilio, Alessandro
Gaggioli, Andrea
author_facet Pezzulo, Giovanni
D'Ausilio, Alessandro
Gaggioli, Andrea
author_sort Pezzulo, Giovanni
collection PubMed
description The ability of “looking into the future”—namely, the capacity of anticipating future states of the environment or of the body—represents a fundamental function of human (and animal) brains. A goalkeeper who tries to guess the ball's direction; a chess player who attempts to anticipate the opponent's next move; or a man-in-love who tries to calculate what are the chances of her saying yes—in all these cases, people are simulating possible future states of the world, in order to maximize the success of their decisions or actions. Research in neuroscience is showing that our ability to predict the behavior of physical or social phenomena is largely dependent on the brain's ability to integrate current and past information to generate (probabilistic) simulations of the future. But could predictive processing be augmented using advanced technologies? In this contribution, we discuss how computational technologies may be used to support, facilitate or enhance the prediction of future events, by considering exemplificative scenarios across different domains, from simpler sensorimotor decisions to more complex cognitive tasks. We also examine the key scientific and technical challenges that must be faced to turn this vision into reality.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-4846798
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2016
publisher Frontiers Media S.A.
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-48467982016-05-19 Predictive Technologies: Can Smart Tools Augment the Brain's Predictive Abilities? Pezzulo, Giovanni D'Ausilio, Alessandro Gaggioli, Andrea Front Neurosci Neuroscience The ability of “looking into the future”—namely, the capacity of anticipating future states of the environment or of the body—represents a fundamental function of human (and animal) brains. A goalkeeper who tries to guess the ball's direction; a chess player who attempts to anticipate the opponent's next move; or a man-in-love who tries to calculate what are the chances of her saying yes—in all these cases, people are simulating possible future states of the world, in order to maximize the success of their decisions or actions. Research in neuroscience is showing that our ability to predict the behavior of physical or social phenomena is largely dependent on the brain's ability to integrate current and past information to generate (probabilistic) simulations of the future. But could predictive processing be augmented using advanced technologies? In this contribution, we discuss how computational technologies may be used to support, facilitate or enhance the prediction of future events, by considering exemplificative scenarios across different domains, from simpler sensorimotor decisions to more complex cognitive tasks. We also examine the key scientific and technical challenges that must be faced to turn this vision into reality. Frontiers Media S.A. 2016-04-27 /pmc/articles/PMC4846798/ /pubmed/27199648 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2016.00186 Text en Copyright © 2016 Pezzulo, D'Ausilio and Gaggioli. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Neuroscience
Pezzulo, Giovanni
D'Ausilio, Alessandro
Gaggioli, Andrea
Predictive Technologies: Can Smart Tools Augment the Brain's Predictive Abilities?
title Predictive Technologies: Can Smart Tools Augment the Brain's Predictive Abilities?
title_full Predictive Technologies: Can Smart Tools Augment the Brain's Predictive Abilities?
title_fullStr Predictive Technologies: Can Smart Tools Augment the Brain's Predictive Abilities?
title_full_unstemmed Predictive Technologies: Can Smart Tools Augment the Brain's Predictive Abilities?
title_short Predictive Technologies: Can Smart Tools Augment the Brain's Predictive Abilities?
title_sort predictive technologies: can smart tools augment the brain's predictive abilities?
topic Neuroscience
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4846798/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27199648
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2016.00186
work_keys_str_mv AT pezzulogiovanni predictivetechnologiescansmarttoolsaugmentthebrainspredictiveabilities
AT dausilioalessandro predictivetechnologiescansmarttoolsaugmentthebrainspredictiveabilities
AT gaggioliandrea predictivetechnologiescansmarttoolsaugmentthebrainspredictiveabilities