Descartes’s error: The reason for emotions
Descartes’s error The reason for emotions is written by Antonio Damasio who explores the relationship between the brain, reason and emotions, the first part of the book presents the case of Phineas Gage, Elliot and other characters that will recognize the integration betweenreason and emotions;The second is an explanation of the interaction between the body and the brain based on the behavior, storage of image and formation of evocable images;The third part tests the hypothesis of the somatic marker, body and mind when exhibiting the error that Descartes made at the time it established a separation between the mind and the body.
Phineas Gage is a headquarters of construction chief, suffered an explosion where the dynamite load bursts him in the face due to a spark in which an iron bar drills his left cheek, crosses the base of the skull, crossing the front zone From the brain destroying the upper part of the head, despite what happened when he was transferred by his companions in search of help Gage was calm, he was sitting very upright, and he used himself to get off the race that moved him, The doctor of the town came to review it and while Gage had and answered with full judgment what happened, approximately after two months of the Gage accident is discharged the doctors narrate their surprising physical recovery, I could see, hear, he had no paralysis In none of its members or in the language, shortly after his behavior changes totally becomes a capricious, unpredictable man, unable to contain or accept advice, to He insulted and fantasized. The researchers through the paradigmatic case of Phines Gage realized that the human brain actively participates in the language, perception, motor functions and had specialized planning and reasoning systems so a brain damage gave the possibility that a subject shows badmanners and breach of ethical norms that are necessary for a good coexistence with the environment that surrounds us, its normality of Vio for these attitudes that never disappeared, after several investigations by different doctors and researchers it was evidenced that the injury that Gage suffered did not harmThe motors or verbal center but the damage was in the pre -frontal cortex that caused their behavioral changes, after several study serious damage was found in the prefronial ventromedial zone determined as the area that regulates decision making.
Another of the paradigmatic cases of great impact is the case of Elliot a 30 -year – Measure that the tumor was growing compress up the frontal lobes compromising the ventral region of the prefrontal cortex, Elliot was subjected to a successful operation where they removed the damaged lobulofrontal tissue, after this intervention the patient totally changed, it was difficult to get up to go To work, unable to administer his time, despite the fact that Elliot was physically capable and most of his mental skills were intact he lost the attention focus and made decisions little successful in commercial and financial matters unlike Gage’s case he was less Nervous and did not say rudeness, neither did it have signs of anger on the contrary was calm and passive. When performing a computerized tomography and a magnetic resonance, they realized that the two frontal lobes had suffered a damage where the right was more affected, despite this Elliot produced cognitive estimates within the normal range, being subjected to neuropsychological exams that revealed aHigher intelligence through the Weshler Intelligence Scale Test demonstrating having higher or equal to the average skills. (Damasio, 1994). However, it was unable to decide properly when it was involved in personal or social matters Elliot was diagnosed without evidence of cerebral organic syndrome and sent to psychotherapy, where it was evaluated if it still had knowledge about social norms and moral values,Evidencia decrease or alterations in the ability to solve problems, in being aware of the consequences of their actions and moral reasoning because of this it was considered that its problem was of a psychological order, and that the cause of their behavior was not due to the injury in the injury inHis brain after a while thanks to the work carried out by Damasio allowed us to understand that the radical change in his decision making was not a matter of psychotherapy, but of damage to the brain region of which he had little knowledge.
After documentation through the different cases that have been studied, it was concluded that when an lesion occurs in the ventromedia section, damage to the prefrontal cortical layers is associated with a deterioration of reasoning, decision making alteration in theEmotions and feelings, beyond the prefrontal cortical layers this other neurological condition called anosognosia that is the inability to recognize a disease in oneself, it means that the subject has no awareness of its left side, and in addition to its partial immobility also present also presentdifficulties in verbal expression;In the event that the right side of the body is affected, it is likely to be due to a brain injury.
People who suffer from anosognosia have damage the right cerebral hemisphere, there is damage to a specific group of cortical layers on the right side known as somatosensory who controls the external senses of touch, temperature and pain, damage also affects white matterof the right hemisphere altering the interconnection between these regions. Through several studies it has been evidenced that serotonin is one of the main neurotramisores that contributes to cognition and behavior by regulating aggressive behavior, likewise other important neurotrarasmitters that control human behavior are dopamine, norepinephrine and acetylcholine accordinglyThere is a relationship between brain regions, reasoning processes and makes decisions in which systems are not only committed to the reasoning process but also in planning and decision.
Describe the neural base of knowledge and its dependence on the images;It gives a detailed explanation of how the body and brain are integrated by biochemical and neural circuits that connect each other by two main routes;First for the sensory and motor peripheral nerves, second by the bloodstream, which transports chemical signals, such as hormones, neurotransmitters and modulators. In the assembly of an explanation, it is based on the fact that the body and brain are interrelated by biochemical circuits making it possible to send signals first by the sensory peripheral nerves and motors, second by the bloodstream through the organs through the organs. These signals enter the brain by means of the spinal cord reaching the interior of the brain passing by the somatosensory layers of the parietal lobe and the insula, thus, Damasio proposes that somatic markers have functions in decision making;The first direct our attention to the negative or positive results to which an action can lead, from this from this the number of options, without being an inconvenience for a benefit and probably increase the effectiveness and precision in the final decision process. Emotions would be integrated into the planning, evaluation and execution process in decision -making, marking the possible final consequences of planned actions, limiting the amount of hypothesis to the final action. The formation of perceptual images The signals are delivered to the primary cortical layers that are located in the occipital lobe but despite being captured when we want to remember them we do not achieve an exact reproduction but an interpretation that is finally a reconstructed version. So that patients who have damage to primary visual cortical layers lose the ability to generate visual images. On the other hand, the dispositional representations are the total deposit of our innate knowledge which are located in the hypothalamus, brain stem and the limbic system and the acquired knowledge that are located in the upper cortical layers and in numerous nuclei of gray matter.
The biological regulation and survival of an organism depend on a set of biological processes that maintains the integrity of the cells and tissue of its entire structure, the biological regulation controls the brain stem, the hypothalamus and the limbic system which intervene in the regulationbodily and neuronal processes involved in learning, perception, evocation, emotion and feelings. The experimentation of an emotion entails a set of changes in body state connected to certain mental images that have activated a specific brain system. The feelings correspond to the body state that predominates between emotions.
The hypothesis of the somatic marker emphasizes the emotions where they are said to help in the reasoning process and participate the care and working memory referring that without work or work memory, the possibility of having a coherent mental activity is extinguished.what is required of a brain and a normal cultural environment. It may be that somatic markers occur thanks to education and socialization and increase the precision and efficiency in the reasoning and decision -making process being compatible with the notion that adequate social and personal behavior.
Neurons and neurotransmitters modify the way in how tissues, the metabolic rhythm and the energy of the organism work giving way to the autonomic nervous system constituting as an autonomous control that is located in the limbic system as in the brain stem, this systemIt is subdivided into the sympathetic and sympathetic nervous system transmitting impulses to the nervous system. The body not only contributes to the brain as the life support but also contributes a content that is an essential part of the operation of a normal mind.
Descartes’s mistake was to separate the mind from the body, it meant that thinking was an activity outside the body with an abysmal separation, its formula affirmed the separation of the mind, such as the thinking thing, of the non -thinking body as an extension and mechanical parts. However, the brain contributes the evolutionary representations of the body while changing due to neuronal and chemical influence.
To end after analyzing several cases such as Phineas Gage or Elliot it is evident that the human being is a whole for this, it is important to emphasBrain caused language disorders by calling them as aphasia on the other hand Wernicke detects that patients with speech speech present partial damage in the third circumvolution of the left temporal lobe very different from what Broca identifies demonstrating that the brain composes the central nervous system that is connectedneuronally that constitutes the peripheral nervous system. The nerves transport impulses from the body to the brain, neurons actively participate in this connection of systems such as conductive cables. The brain interconnects in several ways so that it allows us to understand that the mind and body is a single organism that is integrated through its different systems composed of different interconnected brain units anatomically being able to generate reasoning processes, being involved in planning andDecision that performs an important role in the processing of emotions, feelings and reason in decision making so that tasks are executed, where the human being is an integrated being capable of interacting with the surrounding environment.
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