Is the amygdala a production system?
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Transcript of Is the amygdala a production system?
Is the amygdala a production system?
Robert L. WestInstitute of Cognitive Science, Dept of Psychology
Carleton University
Emotion and Reason
Emotion and Reason
Emotion
Irrational
Sub Symbolic
Unconscious process
Qualia = Feeling
Bottom up
Reason
Rational
Symbolic
Conscious process
Qualia = Knowing
Top down
The Amygdala
Fits the two systems picture well
or does it???
Amygdala
Neuroscience of murder and aggression
Amygdala functional correlations
Classical/Operant conditioning (particularly with fear)
Memory cueing and consolidation (via Hippocampus)
Decision making (Somatic Markers)
Perception (Blind Sight, Fast path)
Social (Faces, Emotions, Highjacking)
Motor reactions (particularly with fear)
Lots of clinical correlations
two seperate systems
Descartes Error
Antonio Damasio
Emotional Intelligence
Daniel Goleman
The Emotional Brain
Joseph Ledoux
integrated system
Fast path found in mice but not in primates
Lots of functional and anatomical connections between amygdala and other areas
No anatomical distinction between cognition and emotion
No evidence somatic markers are somatic
Lots of evidence the amygdala responds to symbolic threat
See Pessoa & Adlophs (2010) Multiple Waves Model
Somatic is meaningless
Somatic markers means non symbolic (not sub symbolic)
Based on a narrow definition of “symbol”
Newell definition: Symbol = distal access
ACT-R: distal access = buffer = neural connections
May be two systems, but not somatic
ACT-R issues
Can emotion be modeled with the tools already in ACT-R?
Does the amygdala system function as a seperate production system and if so what are the limitations and consequences especially regarding control and timing (the bottleneck)?
To what extent is emotion sub-symbolic/bio-chemical/paramater-based and to what extent is it symbolic/chunk-based/vector-based?
How does emotion interact with chunks in DM?
act-r can already do everything the amygdala does
Learning - Rescorla-Wagner
Memories - create and reinforce
Reacts to perceptual inputs
Direct motor responses
Change focus
Somatic markers - use chunks with Blending
Two Systems in act-r
Amygdala = production system
Faster production time simulates fast path
Access to buffers
Ability to direct modules
Ability to interupt motor module
Buffer for emotional states
Repeatedly adds to memory (consolidation)
Somatic markers - blending and spreading activation
integrated system in act-r
Iterative approach - What minimally needs to be added to get amygdala functionality
Alarms can be modeled in ACT-R by using high utility productions
Alarm Buffer - connections from the amygdala
Parallel Alarm Monitor - the amygdala
Use productions but not a production system
No sense of context (no access to other buffers or DM retrievals)
parallel alarm monitor
Basil Ganglia
goalbuffer
imaginalbuffer
Amygdala
Perception Motor
DMbuffer
alarmbuffer
faster
Conclusion
Although popular, the two systems view is not well supported neurally or experimentally
ACT-R already has everything to model the Amygdala
We need to treat emotion as information
We need more research
Unexpected interuptions, DM memory effects, Emotional learning