Prior-based refinement — raw prediction error gaining shape, color, texture, and history as it moves through four neuroanatomical levels toward concept capture. The four constraints (viability · bonds · autonomy · orientation) shape signal intensity throughout. The DMN's concept collapses the elaborated signal into one meaning and sends predictions back left. Last updated March 2026.

UPSTREAM SIGNAL MODEL PRIOR-BASED REFINEMENT · CONCEPT CAPTURE · CONSTRUCTED EXPERIENCE UPSTREAM DOWNSTREAM CAPACITY body report and prediction energy · tank · mood affect energy expenditure towards the nervous system to resolve the mismatch prediction error *constraints: viability · bonds autonomy · orientation signal intensity action readiness PRESSURE felt quality past pattern constraint · reflex thalamus brainstem urge · mobilize amygdala basal ganglia salience · valence insula ant. cingulate implicit memory hippocampus limbic system meaning capture best fit prediction concept DMN default mode network concepts · memories · words narrative · interpretation predictive stream INTEROCEPTIVE PRIORS emotion · behavior experience CONSTRUCTED SIMULATION narrative · meaning making · story analysis · reflection insight updates DMN not priors elaboration moving right → raw error gaining shape, color, texture, history as it moves toward capture ← prediction moving left the DMN's fully formed concept collapsing the elaborated signal into one meaning