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Sham Kakade

Publications and source records attributed to Sham Kakade.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

Acquisition and extinction in autoshaping.

C. R. Gallistel and J. Gibbon (2000) presented quantitative data on the speed with which animals acquire behavioral responses during autoshaping, together with a statistical model of learning intended to account for them. Although this model captures the form of the dependencies among critical variables, its detailed predictions are substantially at variance with the data. In the present article, further key data on the speed of acquisition are used to motivate an alternative model of learning, in which animals can be interpreted as paying different amounts of attention to stimuli according to estimates of their differential reliabilities as predictors.

Animals↗

Dopamine: generalization and bonuses.

In the temporal difference model of primate dopamine neurons, their phasic activity reports a prediction error for future reward. This model is supported by a wealth of experimental data. However, in certain circumstances, the activity of the dopamine cells seems anomalous under the model, as they respond in particular ways to stimuli that are not obviously related to predictions of reward. In this paper, we address two important sets of anomalies, those having to do with generalization and novelty. Generalization responses are treated as the natural consequence of partial information; novelty responses are treated by the suggestion that dopamine cells multiplex information about reward bonuses, including exploration bonuses and shaping bonuses. We interpret this additional role for dopamine in terms of the mechanistic attentional and psychomotor effects of dopamine, having the computational role of guiding exploration.

Animals↗

Opponent interactions between serotonin and dopamine.

Anatomical and pharmacological evidence suggests that the dorsal raphe serotonin system and the ventral tegmental and substantia nigra dopamine system may act as mutual opponents. In the light of the temporal difference model of the involvement of the dopamine system in reward learning, we consider three aspects of motivational opponency involving dopamine and serotonin. We suggest that a tonic serotonergic signal reports the long-run average reward rate as part of an average-case reinforcement learning model; that a tonic dopaminergic signal reports the long-run average punishment rate in a similar context; and finally speculate that a phasic serotonin signal might report an ongoing prediction error for future punishment.

Animals↗