Table of Contents

Preface vii
I
1 Overview 3
2 The Low Road to Active Inference 15
3 The High Road to Active Inference 41
4 The Generative Models of Active Inference 63
5 Message Passing and Neurobiology 85
II 
6 A Recipe for Designing Active Inference Models 105
7 Active Inference in Discrete Time 125
8 Active Inference in Continuous Time 153
9 Model-Based Data Analysis 173
10 Active Inference as a Unified Theory of Sentient Behavior 191
Appendix A: Mathematical Background 225
Appendix B: The Equations of Active Inference 243
Appendix C: An Annotated Example of the Matlab Code 259
Notes 267
References 273
Index 295

About the Author

Thomas Parr is a Postdoctoral Scholar at the Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging at the Queen Square Institute of Neurology at University College London and a practicing clinician. Giovanni Pezzulo is a Researcher at the Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies of the National Research Council of Italy in Rome. Karl J. Friston is Scientific Director of the Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging and Professor at Queen Square Institute of Neurology at University College London.