[suffering’s] dependence on higher cognition suggests that it is much more complex and conditional than it might appear on initial introspection, which on its own reduces the probability of its showing up elsewhere
Suffering is surely influenced by things like mental narratives, but that doesn’t mean it requires mental narratives to exist at all. I would think that the narratives exert some influence over the amount of suffering. For example, if (to vastly oversimplify) suffering was represented by some number in the brain, and if by default it would be −10, then maybe the right narrative could add +7 so that it became just −3.
Top-down processing by the brain is a very general thing, not just for suffering. But I wouldn’t say that all brain processes that are influenced by it can’t exist without it. (OTOH, depending on how broadly we define top-down processing, maybe it’s also somewhat ubiquitous in brains. The overall output of a neural network will often be influenced by multiple inputs, some from the senses and some from “higher” brain regions.)
Suffering is surely influenced by things like mental narratives, but that doesn’t mean it requires mental narratives to exist at all. I would think that the narratives exert some influence over the amount of suffering. For example, if (to vastly oversimplify) suffering was represented by some number in the brain, and if by default it would be −10, then maybe the right narrative could add +7 so that it became just −3.
Top-down processing by the brain is a very general thing, not just for suffering. But I wouldn’t say that all brain processes that are influenced by it can’t exist without it. (OTOH, depending on how broadly we define top-down processing, maybe it’s also somewhat ubiquitous in brains. The overall output of a neural network will often be influenced by multiple inputs, some from the senses and some from “higher” brain regions.)