Andrew Blake Pashea andrewpashea@activeinference.institute

Hierarchical Active Inference Modeling of Social Trust Dynamics in PTSD

Authors: Andrew Pashea, Jeremy Cooper, Haeun Sun, Angelos Krypotos

Keywords: Computational Psychiatry, PTSD, Phenomenology, Social Cognition, Affect, Neuroeconomics

This repository stores code and documentation related to the hierarchical POMDP Active Inference agent model prepared for in silico experimentation in a behavioral card advisor task over a chosen number of trials. This project seeks to model identifiable behaviors and patterns found in clinical PTSD, in reference to both qualitative clinical studies and previous simulations, with an emphasis upon the post-trauma social aspects of PTSD which have been lesser emphasized in previous simulation literature. The aim is not to recreate the initial trauma nor learned fear association, but rather the post-trauma behaviors and strategies for coping with symptoms as a related but distinct, continued phenomena. The overall project, rooted in computational psychiatry, psychology, and phenomenological research, is developed in the direction of gaining nuanced insights for informing and enhancing treatment interventions.

The code is currently accessible in the following Google Colab notebook for hosted browser-based computing. It is currently a bit cumbersome and in need of cleaning(!) as we continue testing and experimentation, but will be refactored and packaged for ease and generality of use in future.

Code: PTSD Card Advisor with Grid Search

IWAI Poster 2025 (Pashea et. al, 2025):