Is the amygdala a production system?

1. Is the amygdala a production system? • Robert L. West • Institute of Cognitive Science, Dept of Psychology • Carleton University

2. Emotion and Reason

3. Emotion and Reason • Reason • Rational • Symbolic • Conscious process • Qualia = Knowing • Top down • Emotion • Irrational • Sub Symbolic • Unconscious process • Qualia = Feeling • Bottom up

4. The Amygdala Fits the two systems picture well Amygdala or does it???

5. Neuroscience of murder and aggression

6. 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

7. two seperate systems • Descartes Error • Antonio Damasio • Emotional Intelligence • Daniel Goleman • The Emotional Brain • Joseph Ledoux

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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?

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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)

14. parallel alarm monitor alarm buffer DM buffer goal buffer imaginal buffer Amygdala Basil Ganglia faster Perception Motor

15. 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