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HYPOTHESIS AND THEORY article

Front. Neurosci.

Sec. Perception Science

Volume 19 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnins.2025.1583107

This article is part of the Research Topic Neurocinematics: How the Brain Perceives Audiovisuals View all articles

The Predictive Embodied Mind: A Case-Based Encounter with Film Aesthetics

Provisionally accepted
  • University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    In recent decades, the scientific study of the mind has experienced two significant conceptual shifts, each reshaping its research focus. The first, embodied cognition, questioned the objectivist framework of first-generation cognitive science by emphasizing that mental processes are deeply grounded in sensorimotor interactions with the world. Image-schemas have been suggested as the foundational conceptual elements underpinning this embodied grounding. The second shift is the revival of perception as an inferential process within the Predictive Processing (PP) framework. PP conceptualizes the mind as a predictive machine that minimizes error by actively anticipating sensory input through probabilistic computations. Rooted in Helmholtz’s theory of unconscious inference and updated as the Bayesian brain model, PP has been extended to diverse cognitive phenomena, including perception, emotion, and aesthetics. While its application to the visual arts and cinema has been relatively limited, this article seeks to advance this encounter by bridging PP with cinematic aesthetics. The article is structured into three sections. The first introduces the PP framework, outlining its core theoretical principles and linking it to the concept of image schemas. The second section reviews existing accounts of predictive processing in visual aesthetics, particularly in the non-temporal arts, and introduces a new case study of narrative painting that builds on Ladislav Kesner’s work on PP in art interpretation. In the final section we move to the temporal art form of narrative cinema, proposing that films engage the brain’s inferential processes by activating image schemas through deliberate formal design. By structuring sensory input in alignment with the brain’s predictive logic, cinematic works of art enhance both comprehension and the aesthetic pleasure derived from resolving predictions into coherent patterns.

    Keywords: Embodied Cognition, film style, Image Schemas, Inferential processing, Meaningmaking, predictive processing (PP), Visual Aesthetics

    Received: 26 Feb 2025; Accepted: 25 Mar 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Coëgnarts. 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.

    * Correspondence: Maarten Coëgnarts, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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