Recurrent complex visual hallucinations (RCVH) represent a form of psychosis. It may be useful to compare RCVH to another form of psychosis, catatonia. Both include a long list of medical illnesses and have been examined using several different hypotheses. Catatonia has a variety of hypotheses, including neurocircuitry, neurochemistry, and an integrated neuropsychiatric hypothesis. This hypothesis for catatonia supports Collerton et al.'s Perception and Attention Deficit model (PAD) for RCVH.

the dynamic developmental theory of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (adhd) proposes that hypodopaminergic functioning results in anomalous delay-of-reinforcement gradients in adhd, which in turn might account for many of the observed behavioral and cognitive characteristics. however, hyperdopaminergic functioning might also impair mnemonic representation of codes for spatial, motoric, and reward information and contribute to the purported shorter delay gradients in adhd.

This commentary validates the fundamental evolutionary interconnection between the emergence of imitation and the mirror system. We present a novel computational framework for studying the evolutionary origins of imitative behavior and examining the emerging underlying mechanisms. Evolutionary adaptive agents that evolved in this framework demonstrate the emergence of neural “mirror” mechanisms analogous to those found in biological systems.

Hyperbolic theories have the fatal flaw that because of their vertical asymptote they predict irresistible choice of immediate rewards, regardless of future contingencies. They work only for simple situations. Theories incorporating intermediate unconscious choices are more flexible, but are neither exponential nor hyperbolic in their predictions. They don't solve the free will paradox, which may be just a consistent illusion.

We propose a way to achieve across-population sharing within the authors’ model in a way that is plausibly in accordance with human evolution, and also a simple way to capture ecological structure. Finally, we briefly reflect on the model’s scope and limits in modeling linguistic communication.

In the present commentary we expand on two concepts relevant to understanding affliliative bonding. Differences and similarities between the functions and actions of oxytocin and vasopressin are difficult to study but may be critical to an understanding of mechanisms for social bonding. What is termed here a “trait of affiliation” may reflect in part the capacity of these same peptides to program the developing nervous system.

Rules and similarity refer to qualitatively different processes. The classification of a stimulus by rules involves abstract and usually domain-specific knowledge operating primarily on the target representation. In contrast, similarity is a relation between the target representation and another representation of the same type. It is also useful to distinguish associationist processes as a third type of cognitive process.

The Perception and Attention Deficit (PAD) model of visual hallucinations is as limited in generality as other models. It does, however, raise an interesting hypothesis on the role of attentional biases among proto-objects. The prediction that neither impaired attention nor impaired sensory activation alone will produce hallucinations should be addressed in future studies by analysing partial correlations between putative causes and hallucinatory effects.

by comparing mechanisms in nativism, empiricism, and culturalism, the target article by steels & belpaeme (s&b) emphasizes the influence of communicational constraint on sharing color categories. our commentary suggests deeper considerations of some of their claims, and discusses some modifications that may help in the study of communicational constraints in both humans and robots.

We commend Arbib for his original proposal that a mirror neuron system may have participated in language origins. However, in our view he proposes a complex evolutionary scenario that could be more parsimonious. We see no necessity to propose a hand-based signing stage as ancestral to vocal communication. The prefrontal system involved in human speech may have its precursors in the monkey's inferior frontal cortical domain, which is responsive to vocalizations and is related to laryngeal control.

Regret is often symptomatic of the defective decisions associated with “temporary preference” problems. It may also help overcome these defects. Outcome regret can modify the relative utilities of different payoffs. Process regret can motivate search for better decision processes or trap-evading strategies. Heightened regret may thus be functional for control of these self-defeating choices.

We agree that treating rules and similarity as dichotomous opposites is unproductive. However, describing all categorization operations as a continuum of varied similarity process obscures a multidimensional contrast. We describe two processes, instantiated rules and abstract analogy, both of which have aspects of rules and similarity, and question whether they can be compared informatively as points on a continuum.

Collerton et al.'s Perception and Attention Deficit (PAD) model argues that all recurrent complex visual hallucinations (RCVH) result from maladaptive, deficient sensory and attentional processing. We outline a constructivist-based representation of perception using signal detection theory, in which hallucinations are modeled as false alarms when confirmational perceptual information is lacking. This representation allows for some individuals to have RCVH due to a criterion shift associated with attentional proficiency that results in an increased awareness of the environment.

affect mirroring allows infants to distinguish emotional and intentional states of significant others, which – in the pursuit of their own drive satisfaction, including satisfaction of the affiliative drive – become important contextual stimuli predictive of reward. learning to perceive and manipulate others' attitudes toward oneself in pursuit of affiliative reward may be an important step in social development that is impaired in autism.

Ainslie is correct in arguing that the force of commitments partly depends on the predictive role of present action, but this claim can be supported independently of the analogy with interpersonal bargaining. No matter whether we conceive of the parties involved in the bargaining as interests or transient selves, the picture of the will as a competitive interaction among these parties is unconvincing.

Depue & Morrone-Strupinsky’s (D&M-S’s) implicit assumption appears to be that affiliative bonding is either strengthened or maintained with time; however, it is more realistic that it can also be weakened or destroyed by conflictive interpersonal interactions. Without specifying the mechanisms by which antagonistic stimuli deteriorate affiliative bonding, the model is incapable of accounting for the dynamics associated with this complex phenomenon.

Mirror systems must be supplemented by a planning capability to allow language to evolve. A capability for creating, storing, and executing plans for sequences of actions, having evolved in primates, was applied to sequences of communicatory acts. Language could exploit this already-existing capability. Further steps in language evolution may parallel steps seen in the development of modern children.

sunstein advocates a more systematic approach to the study of moral decision-making, namely the heuristics-and-biases paradigm. we offer two concerns and suggest that a focus on decision processes can add value. recent research on decision modes suggest that it is useful to distinguish between the qualitative differences in the ways in which moral decisions can be made when they are not made by reflective, consequentialist reasoning.

Pothos's revision of rules and similarity in the area of language illustrates the impression that the classicist/connectionist debate is in a blind alley. Under his continuum proposal, both hypotheses fall neatly within the information-processing paradigm. In my view, the paradigm shift that dynamic systems theory represents (Spencer & Thelen 2003) should be submitted to critical scrutiny. Specific formalizations of the Rules versus Similarity distinction may not lead to a form of unification under Generalized Context Models or connectionist networks.

the target article proposes that behavioral asymmetries evolved in response to social pressures, accounting for the unequal distribution of handedness across the population. in contrast, we provide evidence that human handedness reflects individual adaptations that enhance movement skill, and that the distribution across the population is best explained by a genetic polymorphism, either balanced or tending toward fixation for right-handedness.