[thedstrat]

One thing that isn't central at all, but it stood out to me.

"The amygdala appears to do something similar for emotional learning. For example infants are born with a simple versions of a fear response, with is later refined through reinforcement learning."

Positive and negative emotions can be seen as a reward/punishment mechanism - the goal of a reinforcement learning policy. Our brain is able to change this policy (what defines a positive or negative emotion) over time as our emotional intelligence matures. For example, when we are babies, we cry at anything that scares us. As we get older, we mature and change the emotional reaction automatically. In the example, we learn that not everything should scare us. I never realized that the brain (or ULM) can modify everything, including it's own policies, in response to external stimulus.

[lostmsu]

> I never realized that the brain (or ULM) can modify everything, including it's own policies, in response to external stimulus.

This statement does not make sense. For the brain, learning is the process of modifying policies. It is possible nothing else happens when brain is learning.