Bitking
September 11, 2018, 2:30am
6
dmac:
I think that the brain has a much better “body needs” sensor than the limbic system. The basal ganglia (BG) performs reinforcement learning which predicts the outcome of a situation in terms of how good or bad it will be for the animal. I think that information in the basal ganglia is routed to the PFC, where it is process and analysed. The result is a loop between Unsupervised Learning and Reinforcement Learning.
I find it quite surprising that you assert that the BG is somehow a better choice for sensing body needs. The body needs → limbic → PFC circuits are widely documented by many sources. Some examples:
Thirst:
Thirst is the basic instinct to drink water. Previously, it was shown that neurons in several circumventricular organs (CVO) of the hypothalamus are activated by thirst-inducing conditions [] . Here, we identify two distinct, genetically-separable...
Hunger:
Heat and cold (comfort seeking):http://www.pnas.org/content/114/8/2042
Overview of all body sensing based drives:
You may wish to reconsider this.
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