Perception as State-Dependent Gain-Weighted Inference An Integrative Systems Model Linking Autonomic Regulation, Neural Gain, Cardiac Timing, and Temporal Integration

Perceptual experience, emotional persistence, and social inference vary widely between individuals even under identical external conditions. Existing cognitive and affective models primarily attribute these differences to interpretation, appraisal, or learned priors, while largely neglecting the role of baseline physiological state. Here, we present an integrative, systems-level framework in which perception and social meaning formation emerge from state-dependent neural gain and temporal integration, constrained by autonomic regulation and cardiac timing. Drawing on converging evidence from human electrophysiology, psychophysics, autonomic physiology, neuroimaging, and intervention studies, we synthesize findings on locus coeruleus–norepinephrine (LC–NE) gain control, heart rate variability (HRV), cardiac-cycle–dependent perceptual gating, heartbeat-evoked potentials (HEPs), and evidence accumulation dynamics. We show that phenomena commonly described as “empathy,” “sensitivity,” “intuition,” or trauma-related bias can be parsimoniously explained as lawful consequences of altered gain, integration windows, and bodily signal weighting rather than as trait-level psychological differences. While each mechanism reviewed has been studied independently, no existing framework integrates them into a unified model of perception and social inference. This paper formalizes such an integration, provides quantitative anchors and comparative summaries, and derives falsifiable predictions for behavioral phenotypes and intervention outcomes.