Emotion, embodied cognition, and Artificial Intelligence

Abstract

Artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities are developing at lightning speed. However, these machines lack the module of emotional processing, which makes artificial intelligence fundamentally different from human intelligence. The intellectual development of humans follows the path of the biological evolution towards the accumulation and transfer of information with increasing efficiency. Apart from the cognitive constant of speech, which dramatically enhanced the transfer of information, humans have advanced their computational power by using various devices, from the abacus to the quantum computer. Yet the mental lives of humans cannot be separated from feelings. The neurodynamics of emotion is still poorly understood; this is the greatest challenge to creating artificial intelligence on par with human intelligence.
Keywords: artificial intelligence; embodied cognition; emotion; social matrix; triune brain

Full text

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ACADEMIA Letters
Academia Letters, August 2021
Corresponding Author: Marina Korsakova-Kreyn, mnkors@gmail.com
Citation: Korsakova-Kreyn, M. (2021). Emotion, embodied cognition, and Artificial Intelligence. Academia Letters,
Article 2883. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL2883.
©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0
Emotion, embodied cognition, and Artificial Intelligence
Marina Korsakova-Kreyn, PhD
Thus, age by age - oh, how soon, my Lord? -
Under the art and nature’s scalpel,
Our spirit screams, and flesh is worn
By giving birth to the sixth sense’s organ.
Nikolai Gumilev
Artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities are developing at lightning speed.
However, these machines lack the module of emotional processing, which makes artificial
intelligence fundamentally different from human intelligence. The intellectual development
of humans follows the path of the biological evolution towards the accumulation and transfer
of information with increasing efficiency. Apart from the cognitive constant of speech, which
dramatically enhanced the transfer of information, humans have advanced their computational
power by using various devices, from the abacus to the quantum computer. Yet, the mental
lives of humans cannot be separated from feelings. The neurodynamics of emotion is still
poorly understood; this is the greatest challenge to creating artificial intelligence on par with
human intelligence.
The primordial origin of human consciousness is emotion (Panksepp, 1998a). The
survival of living organisms depends on affective responsiveness, whether the binary response
of a paramecium (lacking a nervous system) or complex coordination of various systems in
the human organism. For example, the emotion of fear triggers a cascade of reactions beginning
with the precognitive response of the autonomic nervous system, complex homeostatic

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adjustments, activation of the motor system, and up to moral reasoning involving high-level
cognitive function.
Psychologists define emotions as superordinate programs (Tooby & Cosmides, 2008),
which coordinate and synchronize the behaviors of living organisms at all levels. Basic affective
responses to the environment are biologically determined by their survival value: all
sensory systems of living organisms are designed to register changes in the environment.
Biological evolution created and fine-tuned the visual, auditory, and somatosensory system as
survival tools first and foremost. When components of these systems fail, the organism’s life
is endangered. For example, congenital insensitivity to pain severely hinders a baby’s growth
into adulthood (Zhang et al., 2016).
Coordinated and integrated responses of a complex living organism to its environment,
and the very existence of the organism, relies on homeostatic processes that proceed via
electrochemical communication. In humans, this communication engages an enormous colony
of small organisms: some are our cells, and some are companion microbes, viruses, bacteria,
and protozoa that form a microbiome. Cooperation within the colony exemplifies the
evolutionary advantage of mutual support, found everywhere from prokaryote communication
to the human being and advanced civilization. Along with accumulating various biological
survival tools, evolution produced the human mind – capable of highly abstract and elaborate
reasoning.
Even when humans think about abstract things (the expansion of the universe,
mathematical proofs), their rational agency remains inseparable from their feelings. According
to our current understanding of human emotional processing, the core of affective
responsiveness is the limbic system or paleomammalian brain. Because humans share neural
correlates of emotional processing with mammals, we can study emotions with animal models
(Panksepp, 2005). A complete definition of the limbic system’s components is still developing,
though some structures are invariably included in all descriptions. Principal among them are
the hippocampus (learning and memory), the hypothalamus (homeostatic regulation), the
amygdala (anxiety), and the periaqueductal gray (defensive behavior, pain mediation).These
subcortical structures support the rise of affective states that influence our consciousness and
provide a sense of self. The neuropsychology of “self” was articulated in two important models:
the “Core-Self” by Panksepp (1998b) and the “proto-Self” by Damasio (1999). Both models
imply that consciousness is embodied (Damasio, 1994, 1996; Foglia & Wilson, 2013; Lakof &
Johnson, 1999; Merleau-Ponty, 1945/2012; Varela et al., 1991), meaning that our motor
behaviors and our mental lives are interwoven, and that our thoughts and imagination be-
come sculpted through our active interaction with the environment (Aziz-Zadeh et al., 2006;
Aziz-Zadeh & Ivry, 2009; Hostetter & Alibali, 2008; Glenberg & Kaschak, 2002; James &
Maouene, 2009; Wellsby & Pexman, 2014).

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Currently, the biologically-determined basic emotions are explained as a set of seven
primary emotional systems (Panksepp & Biven, 2012), each with its well-defined survival value.
The systems are: FEAR, ANGER, SEEKING/LEARNING, LUST, CARE/NURTURE, PANIC,
and PLAY. These systems activate through interaction with the environment. On top of the
basic emotions, neurologically intact humans learn the code of human behaviors, which is
also conditioned by emotions. This learning begins in infancy. The ‘extended brain’ of caring
adults provides a baby with the necessary training to enter human society. In the absence
of human caregivers, a feral child misses the critical window of opportunity (Robson, 2002)
for normal human development. The matrix of human society provides the framework and
environment for the emergence and development of our mental lives. Overall, affective
consciousness is molded by the social matrix, personal experience, memories, and
psychological makeup (even small children differ in temperament). As a result, members of
human societies exhibit a tremendous range of personality differences.
We can trace the origin of emotions to the binary response of a simple organism, such
as paramecium, as it moves toward positively-valenced information (nutrients) and away from
negatively-valenced information (toxicity). To highlight the principal feature of living things,
Pearl (1988) and Friston (2010) introduced the concept of Markov’s blanket to the cognitive
sciences. This concept represents the boundaries of a biological system in a statistical
sense (Kirchhof et al., 2018). These boundaries can be explained as ‘membranes’ that maintain
the integrity of a living organism in its fight against entropy. The ‘membrane’ allows
the organism to receive information from the environment and to initiate, when necessary,
energy-consuming protective action (Free Energy Principle, Friston, 2010). As compared to
positively-valenced information, negatively-valenced information is prioritized and receives
greater resources, at all levels (negativity bias, Ito et al., 1998). Negative information – bad
news, loud or dissonant sound, or a dangerous situation – generally elicits physical tension, thus
showing the intimate relationship between emotions and the motor system.
Curiously, perceived tension is the main morphological principle in music (Korsakova-
Kreyn, 2014, 2018), an artform dubbed the “universal language of emotions.” In music, we
sense degrees of tonal tension in consonant versus dissonant sound and in stable versus
unstable tones. By using melodic triggers that differ in perceived tonal tension, music conveys
virtual emotions in progress, over time. Perceived tonal tension connects to the subtle responses
of the motor system, which means that studying music perception and cognition can
further our understanding of the relationship between emotion, consciousness, and the motor
system.
In discussing consciousness, it is helpful to mention two neurobiological models: the
triune brain model of Paul McLean (1952, 1990) and the model of principal functional units
of the brain by Aleksander Luria (1973). Both models approach human consciousness from

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an evolutionary perspective. The McLean’s model delineates the brainstem and limbic system
as crucially important primeval structures supporting instinctual responses and affective
consciousness, whereas the highest (tertiary) level of consciousness grants humans the ability
to think about thought. According to Luria’s theory of the dynamic organization of higher
mental functions, advanced (youngest) areas of the brain engage in multimodal integration.
The higher the brain damage in the evolutionary hierarchy, the more specific and bizarre the
disorders of perception (Koziol, Budding, & Chidekel, 2011). While lesions to the neocortex do
not erase consciousness (Merker, 2007), lesions to the emotion-supporting subcortical
structures produce a collapse of mental activity (Panksepp, 1998b; Watt & Pincus, 2004).
The deep structures of the brain, which support our instinctual affective responsiveness, are
critical for maintaining our consciousness.
In conclusion:
The creation of AI on par with human intelligence necessitates research in affective neuro-
science. Human consciousness cannot be separated from emotions. Moreover, human
consciousness is embodied and intimately connected to the motor system. It remains to be seen
whether forthcoming models of AI can emulate the workings of the human limbic system to
approach the source of emotional consciousness defining human relationships and creativity.
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Academia Letters, August 2021
Corresponding Author: Marina Korsakova-Kreyn, mnkors@gmail.com
Citation: Korsakova-Kreyn, M. (2021). Emotion, embodied cognition, and Artificial Intelligence.
Academia Letters, Article 2883. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL2883.
©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0