A cognitive architecture for virtual entities with attentional modulation of pain perception

This paper describes the fusion of two cognitive models for virtual entities. The first one defines the function of pain perception and the second one defines the function of attention with top-down influences. These models were designed as a result of the study of neurophysiology. They are part of a cognitive architecture for virtual entities; the architecture tries to simulate human behavior like decision making and planning. The first model gives a meaning to noxious stimuli; it generates a percept in the brain cortex. The second model is for the attention process; the attention process inhibits the pain perception (in the cortex) when the entity perceives a noxious stimulus during an activity. This is very important because the entity can distinguish between tactile stimuli and noxious stimuli; it helps to preserve the integrity of the entity. Furthermore, it is possible to obtain a virtual entity that is capable of maintaining the performance of an activity without losing focus with another type of stimulation, whether the stimulus is noxious or not. The presented work includes the model description and the implementation steps. The case studies and the results are left as future work.