Modelling Adaptation through Social Allostasis: Modulating the Effects of Social Touch with Oxytocin in Embodied Agents

Abstract

Social allostasis is a mechanism of adaptation that permits individuals to dynamically adapt their physiology to changing physical and social conditions. Oxytocin (OT) is widely considered to be one of the hormones that drives and adapts social behaviours. While its precise effects remain unclear, two areas where OT may promote adaptation are by affecting social salience, and affecting internal responses of performing social behaviours. Working towards a model of dynamic adaptation through social allostasis in simulated embodied agents, and extending our previous work studying OT-inspired modulation of social salience, we present a model and experiments that investigate the effects and adaptive value of allostatic processes based on hormonal (OT) modulation of affective elements of a social behaviour. In particular, we investigate and test the effects and adaptive value of modulating the degree of satisfaction of tactile contact in a social motivation context in a small simulated agent society across different environmental challenges (related to availability of food) and effects of OT modulation of social salience as a motivational incentive. Our results show that the effects of these modulatory mechanisms have different (positive or negative) adaptive value across different groups and under different environmental circumstance in a way that supports the context-dependent nature of OT, put forward by the interactionist approach to OT modulation in biological agents. In terms of simulation models, this means that OT modulation of the mechanisms that we have described should be context-dependent in order to maximise viability of our socially adaptive agents, illustrating the relevance of social allostasis mechanisms.

Modeling Neuroendocrine Autonomic Responses in Embodied Autonomous Robots

“…Depending on emulating hormones implicated in social behavior, Khan et al [31,32] studied the effect of oxytocin and cortisol on the social relationships of artificial agents. In this model, these substances act as neuromodulators of social behavior, influencing the agent's actions and hierarchy to obtain resources, such as food and water.…”

“…Khan et al [31,32] 2018-2020 Promising modeling of hormones in artificial agents to drive their behavior.…”

“…[26][27][28] In addition, although there are works that address the mathematical representation and role of neuroendocrine substances on behavior, they do not take into account the role of autonomic processes on involuntary behavior, and instead, focus only on voluntary behavior. [29][30][31][32] Emulating the human periodic biological changes using circadian rhythms permits these systems to replicate human activity and daily dynamics. Because no work has yet addressed these problems, we propose an artificial neuroendocrine model that covers the modeling and expression of autonomic processes in social robots devoted to HRI.…”

Emotions in Robots: Embodied Interaction in Social and Non-Social Environments

“…Characteristics of artificial agents (based on virtual reality and robotics contexts) are surveyed in [25] in relation to increasing competence for training/therapy in a clinical setting, i.e., with autistic children. Interactive Internal-social environmental embodied processes have been investigated using embodied (simulated) robotic agents [26] focusing on the notion of social allostasis, through hormonal modulation, as an extension of the cybernetic conception of internal and behavioral homeostasis [27].…”

“…The paper "Modelling Adaptation through Social Allostasis: Modulating the Effects of Social Touch with Oxytocin in Embodied Agents" [26], focuses on the use of a simulated hormone 'oxytocin' for facilitating interaction between embodied agents. The simulated agents produce tactile interaction in accordance with an internal architecture whose processing entails competitive decision-making based on homeostatic needs (of which sociality through tactile interaction is one) including physiological (homeostatically regulated) demands such as the need to eat.…”