Emotion-Inspired Learning Signals (EILS): A Homeostatic Framework for Adaptive Autonomous Agents

Abstract

The ruling method in modern Artificial Intelligence spanning from Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) to Large Language Models (LLMs) relies on a surge of static, externally defined reward functions. While this "extrinsic maximization" approach has rendered superhuman performance in closed, stationary fields, it produces agents that are fragile in open-ended, real-world environments. Standard agents lack internal autonomy: they struggle to explore without dense feedback, fail to adapt to distribution shifts (non-stationarity), and require extensive manual tuning of static hyperparameters. This paper proposes that the unaddressed factor in robust autonomy is a functional analog to biological emotion, serving as a high-level homeostatic control mechanism. We introduce Emotion-Inspired Learning Signals (EILS), a unified framework that replaces scattered optimization heuristics with a coherent, bio-inspired internal feedback engine. Unlike traditional methods that treat emotions as semantic labels, EILS models them as continuous, homeostatic appraisal signals such as Curiosity, Stress, and Confidence. We formalize these signals as vector-valued internal states derived from interaction history. These states dynamically modulate the agent's optimization landscape in real time: curiosity regulates entropy to prevent mode collapse, stress modulates plasticity to overcome inactivity, and confidence adapts trust regions to stabilize convergence. We hypothesize that this closed-loop homeostatic regulation can enable EILS agents to outperform standard baselines in terms of sample efficiency and non-stationary adaptation.