Dopamine-like signal
The reward-sensitivity channel of the affect state vector, modeled loosely on dopaminergic signaling. High values increase attention salience for novel and high-reward signals and amplify reinforcement weight for positive outcomes. Distinct from the serotonin-like stability channel and norepinephrine-like urgency channel.
The affect state uses three named channels to represent emotional context without making strong neuroscientific claims. The dopamine-like channel tracks reward sensitivity: when it is elevated, the system weights novel, high-reward signals more heavily in salience scoring and amplifies the reinforcement update for positive outcomes. This is analogous to how dopaminergic activity in biological systems modulates learning rate and attention toward reward-predictive stimuli. In the Cognitive Substrate, this channel is updated based on the recent history of reinforcement outcomes - a string of positive rewards elevates it; a string of neutral or negative outcomes depresses it. The affect state modulates salience weighting in real time, which means the same incoming event can produce different attention priority depending on the current emotional context.