Serotonin, Predictive Processing and Psychedelics

Summary

Letheby's work on the philosophy of psychedelics uses Predictive Processing to explain how psychedelics function in psychiatric therapy and their associated subjective experiences. However, if Predictive Processing does not provide genuine explanatory power, then his account may be unfounded. An alternative interpretation using Reinforcement Learning is proposed to address this concern.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Letheby’s "Philosophy of Psychedelics" relies on Predictive Processing to try and find unifying explanations relevant to understanding how serotonergic psychedelics work in psychiatric therapy, what subjective experiences are associated with their use and whether such experiences are epistemically defective. But if Predictive Processing lacks genuinely explanatory unifying power, Letheby’s account of psychedelic therapy risks being unwarranted. In this commentary, I motivate this worry and sketch an alternative interpretation of psychedelic therapy within the Reinforcement Learning framework.

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