04/20/07
Evolving Brains & Designing Machines: Perspectives on Emotions
Presented by Michael Arbib

Michael Arbib & Jean-Marc Fellous recently co-edited the book "/Who Needs Emotions: The Brain Meets the Robot/", Oxford University Press (2005). The present talk will reflect on the themes of that book.

Research on the neurobiology of emotion yields a deepening understanding of interacting brain structures and neural mechanisms rooted in neuromodulation that underlie emotions in humans and other animals. However, the chemical basis of animal function differs greatly from the mechanics and computations of current machines. Some robots have been given emotional expressions in an attempt to improve human­computer interaction. But what would mean for a robot to have emotion, distinguishing emotional expression for communication from emotion as a mechanism for the organization of behavior?

This is an expository review, not a research talk. It is based on Arbib, M.A., and Fellous, J.-M., 2004, Emotions: from brain to robot, Trends in Cognitive Science, 8: 554-561 Fellous, J.-M., and Arbib, M.A., (Eds.), 2005, Who Needs Emotions: The Brain Meets the Robot, Oxford University Press.