It’s an interesting thought, although I’d note that quite a few prominent authors would disagree that the cortex is ultimately what matters for valence even in mammals (Jaak Panksepp being a prominent example). I think it’d also raise interesting questions about how to generalize this idea to organisms that don’t have cortices. Michael used mushroom bodies in insects as an example, but is there reason to think that mushroom bodies in insects are “like the cortex and pallium” but unlike various subcortical structures in the brain that also play a role in integrating information from different sensory sources? I think there’s need to be more of a specification of which types of neurons are ultimately counted in a principled way.
It’s an interesting thought, although I’d note that quite a few prominent authors would disagree that the cortex is ultimately what matters for valence even in mammals (Jaak Panksepp being a prominent example). I think it’d also raise interesting questions about how to generalize this idea to organisms that don’t have cortices. Michael used mushroom bodies in insects as an example, but is there reason to think that mushroom bodies in insects are “like the cortex and pallium” but unlike various subcortical structures in the brain that also play a role in integrating information from different sensory sources? I think there’s need to be more of a specification of which types of neurons are ultimately counted in a principled way.