Neuromorphic Circuit Implementation of Operant Conditioning Based on Emotion Generation and Modulation

In this work, an operant conditioning (OC) model and memristive circuit implementation based on emotion generation and modulation is proposed, which is inspired by neural and psychological mechanisms to simulate human behavioral decisions guided by reinforcers and emotional changes during interaction with dynamically changing environments. The OC model consists of four main modules which are the cue-synapse-action module, the reward and punishment value systems, and the emotion system. Under four conditions of reward appearance or termination, and punishment appearance or termination, the memristive circuit designed according to the OC model can realize the process of exploration, acquisition, extinction, and recovery of OC (external phenomena), and also reflect the process of change of value signals and emotion signals (internal states). In addition, the phenomena of reward fatigue and punishment adaptation are considered so that value and emotion signals gradually diminish with the repetition of invariant reinforcers. The neuromorphic circuit is verified to have good robustness and device tolerance. This work enables multi-timescale OC tasks and is expected to be applied in an emotionally intelligent robot platform to achieve humanoid functions such as real-time dynamic decision-making for interaction with the environment and emotional companionship.