Special Issue: Consciousness science and its theories A possible evolutionary function of phenomenal conscious experience of pain. Issue 1 (16th June 2021)
- Record Type:
- Journal Article
- Title:
- Special Issue: Consciousness science and its theories A possible evolutionary function of phenomenal conscious experience of pain. Issue 1 (16th June 2021)
- Main Title:
- Special Issue: Consciousness science and its theories A possible evolutionary function of phenomenal conscious experience of pain
- Authors:
- Kolodny, Oren
Moyal, Roy
Edelman, Shimon - Abstract:
- Abstract: Evolutionary accounts of feelings, and in particular of negative affect and of pain, assume that creatures that feel and care about the outcomes of their behavior outperform those that do not in terms of their evolutionary fitness. Such accounts, however, can only work if feelings can be shown to contribute to fitness-influencing outcomes. Simply assuming that a learner that feels and cares about outcomes is more strongly motivated than one that does is not enough, if only because motivation can be tied directly to outcomes by incorporating an appropriate reward function, without leaving any apparent role to feelings (as it is done in state-of-the-art engineered systems based on reinforcement learning). Here, we propose a possible mechanism whereby pain contributes to fitness: an actor-critic functional architecture for reinforcement learning, in which pain reflects the costs imposed on actors in their bidding for control, so as to promote honest signaling and ultimately help the system optimize learning and future behavior.
- Is Part Of:
- Neuroscience of consciousness. Issue 1(2021)
- Journal:
- Neuroscience of consciousness
- Issue:
- Issue 1(2021)
- Issue Display:
- Volume 1, Issue 1 (2021)
- Year:
- 2021
- Volume:
- 1
- Issue:
- 1
- Issue Sort Value:
- 2021-0001-0001-0000
- Page Start:
- Page End:
- Publication Date:
- 2021-06-16
- Subjects:
- theories and models -- pain -- evolution -- honest signaling
Consciousness -- Periodicals
Consciousness -- Physiological aspects -- Periodicals
612.823 - Journal URLs:
- http://nc.oxfordjournals.org/ ↗
http://www.oxfordjournals.org/ ↗ - DOI:
- 10.1093/nc/niab012 ↗
- Languages:
- English
- ISSNs:
- 2057-2107
- Deposit Type:
- Legaldeposit
- View Content:
- Available online (eLD content is only available in our Reading Rooms) ↗
- Physical Locations:
- British Library DSC - BLDSS-3PM
British Library STI - ELD Digital store - Ingest File:
- 17298.xml