Assessment of gut-brain interactions: reframing DGBI symptoms from visceral hypersensitivity to computational interoceptive overfitting

For decades, disorders of gut-brain interaction (DGBI) have been ensnared in an epistemological bottleneck, clinically managed as diagnoses of exclusion despite the absence of structural pathology on conventional endoscopy. Traditional bottom-up models of visceral hypersensitivity fail to explain the profound subjective-objective symptom mismatches observed in clinical practice. This Perspective proposes a radical paradigm shift: leveraging the Predictive Processing (PP) framework to reconceptualize DGBI as a hierarchical computational dysfunction termed "interoceptive overfitting". We postulate that rigid, high-precision threat priors force the salience network (dACC and aIns) to misallocate pathologically high precision weighting to baseline physiological noise, such as healthy 3-cycles-per-minute (cpm) gastric slow waves. This top-down failure synthesizes illusory pain and triggers genuine autonomic disruption via active inference, creating a self-fulfilling loop of GI micro-sabotage. We present a clinical roadmap utilizing high-resolution body surface gastric mapping (BSGM) and Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) to identify "Probabilistic Mismatch Points" within a multimodal diagnostic matrix that accounts for non-rhythmic peripheral modulators. To resolve therapeutic stagnation, we propose closed-loop digital therapeutics (DTx) designed to recalibrate the brain's predictive engine through validation-correction loops, targeted extinction learning, and dual-stream telemetry. This computational framework provides a rigorously scientific blueprint to resolve therapeutic stagnation in DGBI.

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Publication Details

Journal
Frontiers in Physiology
Published
2026-04-15
DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2026.1817832
Primary Topic
Gastrointestinal motility and disorders
Type
article
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article

Assessment of gut-brain interactions: reframing DGBI symptoms from visceral hypersensitivity to computational interoceptive overfitting

Dakai Zeng, He Zeng, Zi Lin, Wen-Jing Yan
Frontiers in Physiology
Gastrointestinal motility and disorders
article

Assessment of gut-brain interactions: reframing DGBI symptoms from visceral hypersensitivity to computational interoceptive overfitting

Dakai Zeng, He Zeng, Zi Lin, Wen-Jing Yan
article en

Abstract

For decades, disorders of gut-brain interaction (DGBI) have been ensnared in an epistemological bottleneck, clinically managed as diagnoses of exclusion despite the absence of structural pathology on conventional endoscopy. Traditional bottom-up models of visceral hypersensitivity fail to explain the profound subjective-objective symptom mismatches observed in clinical practice. This Perspective proposes a radical paradigm shift: leveraging the Predictive Processing (PP) framework to reconceptualize DGBI as a hierarchical computational dysfunction termed "interoceptive overfitting". We postulate that rigid, high-precision threat priors force the salience network (dACC and aIns) to misallocate pathologically high precision weighting to baseline physiological noise, such as healthy 3-cycles-per-minute (cpm) gastric slow waves. This top-down failure synthesizes illusory pain and triggers genuine autonomic disruption via active inference, creating a self-fulfilling loop of GI micro-sabotage. We present a clinical roadmap utilizing high-resolution body surface gastric mapping (BSGM) and Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) to identify "Probabilistic Mismatch Points" within a multimodal diagnostic matrix that accounts for non-rhythmic peripheral modulators. To resolve therapeutic stagnation, we propose closed-loop digital therapeutics (DTx) designed to recalibrate the brain's predictive engine through validation-correction loops, targeted extinction learning, and dual-stream telemetry. This computational framework provides a rigorously scientific blueprint to resolve therapeutic stagnation in DGBI.

Frontiers in PhysiologyVol. 17
Wenzhou Medical University (CN), First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University (CN), Ruian People's Hospital (CN), Jinzhou Kangning Hospital (CN)
Reduced inequalities
Openalex Percentile: Top 40%
Gastrointestinal motility and disorders
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