The interoceptive origin of reinforcement learning

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Overview

Paper Summary

Conflicts of Interest

Identified Weaknesses

Rating Explanation

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Paper Summary

Paperzilla title

Your Brain Likes Sugar Because It Gives You Energy, Not Just Because It Tastes Good (Mostly Mouse Studies)

This review synthesizes research on reinforcement learning, focusing on how primary reward signals for food and water originate from post-oral feedback rather than immediate sensory experiences. The authors highlight distinct pathways for sugar, fat, and water, emphasizing the role of internal states and goals in shaping these signals. While primarily based on animal research, the findings suggest a revised reinforcement learning framework that incorporates the body's internal state evaluation.

Possible Conflicts of Interest

None identified.

Identified Weaknesses

Generalizability to humans

While the research presents compelling findings in animal models, direct translation to humans requires further investigation. Human digestive and reward systems, while sharing similarities, also have key differences that could influence the interpretation of these results.

Limited discussion of CCK

While hormones are highlighted, the study predominantly focuses on post-oral neuronal signals as the primary driver of reinforcement, with the exception of CCK. This leaves the question of the exact role of CCK open.

Limited human data

Although some human fMRI data support the general concept, the study focuses primarily on findings from animal models. More research is needed to confirm these specific reward mechanisms in humans.

Rating Explanation

This review presents a compelling argument for revising our understanding of reward processing. The research is strong, incorporates multiple lines of evidence, and proposes a revised reinforcement learning framework to accommodate these findings. The reliance on animal models, while necessary for some of the experiments described, slightly limits the immediate translatability to humans, hence the rating of 4 instead of 5.

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