# Internal Model An **internal model** is a representation an organism or computational system uses to estimate the state and causal structure of itself or its environment, predict the consequences of events or actions, and revise expectations when observations differ from predictions. In neuroscience, internal and generative models are central to predictive-processing and biological-control accounts. In intelligence, the comparable object is an explicit model of identities, relationships, states, uncertainties, and possible transitions. ## Relationships - **neuroscience:** [[wiki/Predictive Processing|Predictive Processing]]. - **systems analysis:** [[wiki/Systems Thinking|Systems Thinking]] and [[wiki/State Estimation|State Estimation]]. - **ethical context:** [[wiki/Environmental Legibility|Environmental Legibility]]. - **source thought:** [[thoughts/The Right to Understand Your World|The Right to Understand Your World]]. ## Sources / Provenance - [Keller and Mrsic-Flogel — Predictive Processing: A Canonical Cortical Computation, 2018](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6400266/) - [Tanaka et al. — Internal Models in Biological Control, 2018](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6520231/) **As of:** 2026-09-23