Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human BrainAlthough I cannot tell for certain what sparked my interest in the neural underpinnings of reason, I do know when I became convinced that the traditional views on the nature of rationality could not be correct. Thus begins a book that takes the reader on a journey of discovery, from the story of Phineas Gage, the famous nineteenth-century case of behavioral change that followed brain damage, to the contemporary recreation of Gage's brain; and from the doubts of a young neurologist to a testable hypothesis concerning the emotions and their fundamental role in rational human behavior. Drawing on his experiences with neurological patients affected by brain damage (his laboratory is recognized worldwide as the foremost center for the study of such patients), Antonio Damasio shows how the absence of emotion and feeling can break down rationality. In the course of explaining how emotions and feelings contribute to reason and to adaptive social behavior, Damasio also offers a novel perspective on what emotions and feelings actually are: a direct sensing of our own body states, a link between the body and its survival-oriented regulations, on the one hand, and consciousness, on the other. Descartes' Error leads us to conclude that human organisms are endowed from the very beginning with a spirited passion for making choices, which the social mind can use to build rational behavior. |
From inside the book
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Page 72
... motor regions : M1 , M2 , and M3 . M1 includes the so - called " motor strip " which shows up in every cartoon of the brain . An ugly human figure ( " Penfield's ho- munculus " ) is often drawn on top of it . The less well known M2 is ...
... motor regions : M1 , M2 , and M3 . M1 includes the so - called " motor strip " which shows up in every cartoon of the brain . An ugly human figure ( " Penfield's ho- munculus " ) is often drawn on top of it . The less well known M2 is ...
Page 92
... motor and chemical signals arise ; among these " output " sectors are the brain stem and hypothalamic nuclei , and the motor cortices . An Aside on the Architecture of Neural Systems Pretend you are designing the human brain from ...
... motor and chemical signals arise ; among these " output " sectors are the brain stem and hypothalamic nuclei , and the motor cortices . An Aside on the Architecture of Neural Systems Pretend you are designing the human brain from ...
Page 183
... motor and chemical response available to the brain . The dorsolateral and upper medial sectors can activate the premotor cortices and , from there , bring on - line the so - called primary motor cortex ( M1 ) , the supplementary motor ...
... motor and chemical response available to the brain . The dorsolateral and upper medial sectors can activate the premotor cortices and , from there , bring on - line the so - called primary motor cortex ( M1 ) , the supplementary motor ...
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action activity amygdala anosognosia anosognosics areas autonomic nervous system axons background feeling basal ganglia basic biological regulation body proper brain damage brain regions brain sectors brain stem caused cerebral cortex changes chapter cingulate circuitry circuits cognitive complex components connections consciousness Damasio decision decision-making defect Descartes dispositional representations early sensory cortices early visual cortices Elliot emotion and feeling environment experience frontal lobe function Gage's Hanna Damasio happens human brain hypothalamus images impaired individuals innate interactions knowledge lesions limbic system mechanisms memory mental mind monkeys motor motor cortex muscles neocortex nervous system neural neurobiology neurons neuropsychological Neuroscience neurotransmitter normal nuclei operation options pain particular patients patterns perception personal and social Phineas Gage phrenology prefrontal cortices prefrontal damage problem rationality reason result right hemisphere sense serotonin situation skin conductance response somatic markers somatosensory cortices specific stimulus strategies structures subcortical survival synapses thalamus tion ventromedial visceral York