Who Needs Emotions? The Brain Meets the Robot

164 brains
Estimation of
social
consequences
Beliefs and desires of
Agent A
Execution of action
Social signals
from Agent A
Who ?
Representation
of selfgenerated
action
Representation
of observed
action
Representation
of observed
action
Social signals
from Agent B
Execution of action
Representation
of selfgenerated
action
Who ?
Beliefs and desires of
Agent B
Estimation of
social
consequences
Figure 6.1. A tentative illustration of the many interactions between two
agents. Each agent builds in the brain a representation of both his or her own
intended actions, using internal cues like beliefs and desires, and the potential
actions of the other agent. These partly overlapping representations are used
by each agent to build a set of predictions and estimates about the social
consequences of the represented actions, if and when they would be executed.
When an action comes to execution, it is perceived by the other agent
as a set of social signals which do or do not confirm predictions and possibly
modify beliefs and desires.
in the pattern of cortical connectivity could alter the shape of the networks
corresponding to different representations or the relative intensity of activation
in the areas composing these networks. Although little is known on
the functional aspects of cortical connectivity underlying the formation of
these networks and, a fortiori, their dysfunction in schizophrenia, several
studies have pointed to the prefrontal cortex as one of the possible sites for