I think therefore I feel: Possible neural mechanisms for knowledge-based pleasure

Abstract

─How do we feel pleasure from acquiring new information? How is that pleasure related to our curiosity about that information? We outline a neural theory of how information-based pleasure arises from a network involving association cortex, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, orbitofrontal cortex, striatum, opioids, and dopamine. 1. THE KNOWLEDGE INSTINCT AND ITS ATTENDANT EMOTIONS he drive by humans and other animals to understand their environments as deeply as possible has long been recognized by psychologists [1]. Perlovsky [2, 3] has described this drive as a knowledge instinct, a biological curiosity drive that can be comparably powerful to other biological drives such as those for food, sex, and safety. Perlovsky notes that emotions are linked to satisfaction or dissatisfaction of basic drives, based on a theory developed in [4]. In the case of the knowledge instinct, there is behavioral evidence for pleasure from satisfied curiosity [5] and displeasure from cognitive dissonance [6, 7]. Since the curiosity drive typically engages a higher level of processing than the hunger or sex drives, its attendant emotions are thought to be qualitatively different from the emotions attendant to those other drives, and related to the sense of the beautiful [8]. The notion of a knowledge instinct is not universally accepted in the scientific community. Neuroscientists and psychologists, and even more the general public, still often treat cognition and emotion as separate processes and resist the notion that one is attendant on the other.

Aesthetic Chills: Knowledge-Acquisition, Meaning-Making, and Aesthetic Emotions

“…Though further experimentation should examine these relations in more detail, in current experiments our hypothesis has been tentatively confirmed, and we conclude from these results that aesthetic chills might correspond to a satisfaction of our participants' vital need for knowledge. A neural theory of how pleasure related to knowledge-acquisition and understanding arises from a network involving association cortex, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, orbitofrontal cortex, striatum, opioids, and dopamine is outlined in Levine ( 2012 ). These detailed neural mechanisms of generalized mental representations are not yet accounted for in a simplified mathematical model of interacting emotions and cognition.…”

“…The pattern of activity observed in correlation with music-induced chills is similar to that observed in other studies of highly pleasurable emotions (e.g., Ketter et al, 1996 ). A neural theory of how pleasure might be related to knowledge-acquisition and understanding identified a similar network involving association cortex, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, orbitofrontal cortex, striatum, opioids, and dopamine (e.g., Levine, 2012 ). Candidate neural mechanisms are discussed in Levine and Perlovsky ( 2008 ), Levine ( 2012 ), Perlovsky and Levine ( 2012 ).…”

“…A neural theory of how pleasure might be related to knowledge-acquisition and understanding identified a similar network involving association cortex, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, orbitofrontal cortex, striatum, opioids, and dopamine (e.g., Levine, 2012 ). Candidate neural mechanisms are discussed in Levine and Perlovsky ( 2008 ), Levine ( 2012 ), Perlovsky and Levine ( 2012 ). Further evidence for our hypothesis that aesthetic emotions correspond to maxima of KI-similarity is provided by pharmacological studies on the role of endogenous opioids in learning, retention, and memory.…”

Atonal Music: Can Uncertainty Lead to Pleasure?

“…In the context of explaining creativity, Perlovsky refers to the so-called “knowledge instinct” (Perlovsky and Levine, 2012, p. 292) to describe human nature, suggesting that individuals are geared toward seeking information and discovery. It has been suggested that humans, as well as animals, inherently possess a drive for curiosity (Jepma et al, 2012; Levine, 2012) and that exploratory behavior, driven by novelty, is associated with reward in the long-term (Bevins, 2001). This trait may be more pronounced in certain individuals than in others.…”

Aesthetic emotions, what are their cognitive functions?

“…are unified into a concept of “university,” “educational system,” etc. A neural theory of how information-based pleasure arises from a network involving association cortex, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, orbitofrontal cortex, striatum, opioids, and dopamine is outlined in Levine ( 2012 ). These detailed neural mechanisms of generalized mental representations are not yet accounted for in a simplified mathematical model of interacting emotions and cognition, which misses many details (Pessoa, 2008 , 2009 ), but it is sufficient for the purpose of this article.…”