28 December 2016
In a prominent model of reward learning, Montague et al. (p. 1944, [304]) have argued that dopamine neurons deliver “information about prediction errors between the expected amount of reward and the actual reward”. Their computational model is based on data collected primarily by Schultz and colleagues in an important series of electro- physiological studies on the relationship between the discharge rate of presumed dopamine neurons and the presentation of food rewards, and conditioned stimuli predictive of food rewards [5,277,278,300,301,371,398,399,401- 403], Accordingly, Schultz himself concurs that dopamine neurons “signal deviations from the prediction of future appetitive events” .
This simple example shows the human ego independence from other individuals and the public consciousness as a whole. Of course, other’s evaluation is important for us, but it isn’t final. It is no surprise, if one thinks his or her personality low estimation by others is unfair, however, if things are the vice versa, he / she may disagree as well. Praises from people near and far may be insufficient, for example, to make an artist or writer believe in his / her talent. This simple example can lead us to other presumptions. The mechanisms of persuasion may be useful to change the opinion of an interlocutor, but they fail, for example, as a means of a psychological influence on an alcoholic to convince him or her to stop drinking.