Seonglae ChoNeuroscience Notion
Neuroscience Fields
History
While the learning system (neocortex, hippocampus, etc.) is a general-purpose learner that builds a world model through experience, the steering system (hypothalamus, brainstem) provides reward signals based on evolutionarily hard-coded rules and thereby determines the direction of learning.
- Learning system: neocortex, hippocampus, etc. Learns actions by building a world model from experience.
- Steering system: hypothalamus, brainstem, etc. Innate instincts and reward signals “hard-coded” by evolution steer the direction of learning.
Complex human behaviours: sociality, shame, laughter, attachment are explained as emerging not from simple reward alone, but from an intermediate circuit called a Thought Assessor that links learned concepts to instinctive rewards.
