Characterizing higher-order representations through generative diffusion models explains human decoded neurofeedback performance

arXiv:2503.14333v4 Announce Type: replace-cross Abstract: Brains construct not only "first-order" representations of the environment but also "higher-order" representations about those representations -- including higher-order uncertainty estimates that guide learning and adaptive behavior. Higher-order expectations about representational uncertainty -- i.e., learned through experience -- may play a key role in guiding behavior and learning, but their characterization remains empirically and the