The positive-negative axis of emotional valence has long been recognized as fundamental
to adaptive behavior, but its origin and underlying function have largely eluded formal …

Although pain is a widely known phenomenon and an important clinical symptom that
occurs in numerous diseases, its mechanisms are still barely understood. Owing to the …

Motivated behaviors are often initiated in response to perturbations of homeostasis. Indeed,
animals and humans have fundamental drives to procure (appetitive behaviors) and …

Summary The Computational Theory of Mind says that the mind is a computing system. It
has a long history going back to the idea that thought is a kind of computation. Its modern …

The brain regulates the body by anticipating its needs and attempting to meet them before
they arise–a process called allostasis. Allostasis requires a model of the changing sensory …

Internet pornography is a multi-billion-dollar industry that has grown increasingly accessible.
Delay discounting involves devaluing larger, later rewards in favor of smaller, more …

Post stroke upper limb rehabilitation is a challenging problem with poor outcomes as 40% of
survivors have functionally useless upper limbs. Robot-aided therapy (RAT) is a potential …

Although the brain relies on auditory information to calibrate vocal behavior, the neural
substrates of vocal learning remain unclear. Here we demonstrate that lesions of the …

With the discovery of the blocking effect, learning theory took a huge leap forward, because
blocking provided a crucial clue that surprise is what drives learning. This in turn stimulated …

Courtesy of its free energy formulation, the hierarchical predictive processing theory of the
brain (PTB) is often claimed to be a grand unifying theory. To test this claim, we examine a …