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preparation for the induced bodily response →
sensory representation of the induced bodily response
as a shortcut in the causal chain. The body loop (or as if body loop) is extended to a
recursive body loop (or recursive as if body loop) by assuming that the preparation of
the bodily response is also affected by the state of feeling the emotion:
feeling → preparation for the bodily response
as an additional causal relation. Such recursiveness is also assumed by Damasio
(2004), as he notices that what is felt by sensing is actually a body state which is an
internal object, under control of the person:
'The brain has a direct means to respond to the object as feelings unfold because the
object at the origin is inside the body, rather than external to it. The brain can act di-
rectly on the very object it is perceiving. It can do so by modifying the state of the ob-
ject, or by altering the transmission of signals from it. The object at the origin on the
one hand, and the brain map of that object on the other, can influence each other in a
sort of reverberative process that is not to be found, for example, in the perception of an
external object.' (…)
'In other words, feelings are not a passive perception or a flash in time, especially
not in the case of feelings of joy and sorrow. For a while after an occasion of such feel-
ings begins - for seconds or for minutes - there is a dynamic engagement of the body,
almost certainly in a repeated fashion, and a subsequent dynamic variation of the per-
ception. We perceive a series of transitions. We sense an interplay, a give and take.'
(Damasio, 2004, pp. 91-92)
Thus the obtained model is based on reciprocal causation relations between emotion
felt and body states, as roughly shown in Figure 1.
body
state
belief
feeling
sensed
body state
Fig. 1. Body loop induced by a belief
Within the model presented in this paper both the bodily response and the feeling
are assigned a level or gradation, expressed by a number, which is assumed dynamic;
for example, the strength of a smile and the extent of happiness. The causal cycle is
modelled as a positive feedback loop, triggered by a mental state and converging to a
certain level of feeling and body state. Here in each round of the cycle the next body
state has a level that is affected by both the mental state and the level of the feeling
state, and the next level of the feeling is based on the level of the body state.
2.2 From Feeling to Believing
In an idealised rational agent the generation of beliefs might only depend on informa-
tional sources and be fully independent from non-informational aspects such as
emotions. However, in real life persons may, for example, have a more optimistic or
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