Computations in extraversion

We make two suggestions with regard to Depue & Collins's (D&C's) target article. First, regarding the functioning of MOC13, we provide data indicating that, contrary to D&C's apparent position, this structure is not necessary for instrumental conditioning. Second, we suggest that D&C's approach would be advanced by reference to formal computational theory, in particular the work of Grossberg. We suggest that an integration of Grossberg's and D&C's models can provide a more complete account of extraversion

Elevated amygdala responses to emotional faces in youths with chronic irritability or bipolar disorder

AbstractA major controversy in child psychiatry is whether bipolar disorder (BD) presents in children as severe, non-episodic irritability (operationalized here as severe mood dysregulation, SMD), rather than with manic episodes as in adults. Both classic, episodic BD and SMD are severe mood disorders characterized by deficits in processing emotional stimuli. Neuroimaging techniques can be used to test whether the pathophysiology mediating these deficits are similar across the two phenotypes. Amygdala dysfunction during face emotion processing is well-documented in BD, but little is known about amygdala dysfunction in chronically irritable youth. We compared neural activation in SMD (n=19), BD (n=19), and healthy volunteer (HV; n=15) youths during an implicit face-emotion processing task with angry, fearful and neutral expressions. In the right amygdala, both SMD and BD exhibited greater activity across all expressions than HV. However, SMD and BD differed from each other and HV in posterior cingulate cortex, posterior insula, and inferior parietal lobe. In these regions, only SMD showed deactivation in response to fearful expressions, whereas only BD showed deactivation in response to angry expressions. Thus, during implicit face emotion processing, youth with BD and those with SMD exhibit similar amygdala dysfunction but different abnormalities in regions involved in information monitoring and integration

Neuroimaging and Responsibility Assessments

Could neuroimaging evidence help us to assess the degree of a person’s responsibility for a crime which we know that they committed? This essay defends an affirmative answer to this question. A range of standard objections to this high-tech approach to assessing people’s responsibility is considered and then set aside, but I also bring to light and then reject a novel objection—an objection which is only encountered when functional (rather than structural) neuroimaging is used to assess people’s responsibility

Socially impaired robots: Human social disorders and robots’ socio-emotional intelligence

© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2014. Social robots need intelligence in order to safely coexist and interact with humans. Robots without functional abilities in understanding others and unable to empathise might be a societal risk and they may lead to a society of socially impaired robots. In this work we provide a survey of three relevant human social disorders, namely autism, psychopathy and schizophrenia, as a means to gain a better understanding of social robots’ future capability requirements.We provide evidence supporting the idea that social robots will require a combination of emotional intelligence and social intelligence, namely socio-emotional intelligence. We argue that a robot with a simple socio-emotional process requires a simulation-driven model of intelligence. Finally, we provide some critical guidelines for designing future socio-emotional robots

Designing Social Agents with Empathic Understanding

Abstract. This paper addresses the design of an agent model for a social agent capable of understanding other agents in an empathic way. The model describes how the empathic agent deals with another agent’s mental states and the associated feelings, thus not only understanding the other agent’s mental state but at the same time feeling the accompanying emotion of the other agent.

The development of morality

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:DX192519 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

The amygdala and ventromedial prefrontal cortex: functional contributions and dysfunction in psychopathy

The current paper examines the functional contributions of the amygdala and ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and the evidence that the functioning of these systems is compromised in individuals with psychopathy. The amygdala is critical for the formation of stimulus–reinforcement associations, both punishment and reward based, and the processing of emotional expressions. vmPFC is critical for the representation of reinforcement expectancies and, owing to this, decision making. Neuropsychological and neuroimaging data from individuals with psychopathy are examined. It is concluded that these critical functions of the amygdala and vmPFC, and their interaction, are compromised in individuals with the disorder. It is argued that these impairments lead to the development of psychopathy