In multicellular organisms, which appear later in evolutionary history, the cells that recognise the presence of such stimuli are separated from those that must co-ordinate the organism's responses to them. Before nervous systems evolved, the sense-receptor cells signalled to those co-ordinating the response through chemicals hormones that diffuse through the body.
Later in evolution, dedicated signalling lines nerves appear, connecting the receptor cells with a central group of nerve cells — neurons — that are the forerunners to our own brains. Brains are by no means the only game in town; bacteria and plants of course flourish quite well without, and will probably outlive humans.
Mental Biology: The New Science of How the Brain and Mind Relate (Electronic book text)
But our ancestors took a different route, building bigger and more complex brains. Within such brains neurons communicate with each other by myriad connections. These fluctuating patterns can form representations of both the external world and the body state of the organism that owns them. Such brains enable their possessors to learn and remember, to recognise the present in the context of the immediate past and the imminent future. To Damasio this means that they are, or possess, selves. In animals with big brains, emotions — mere bodily responses — become translated into feelings, and with feelings, a mind — "a subtle flowing combination of actual images and recalled images in ever-changing proportions" — emerges from the brain.
Many large-brained creatures thus have minds, however alien they may be to our own. But consciousness emerges only when — to quote the book's title — self comes to mind, so that in key brain regions, the representational maps of sensory experience intersect with the encoded experiences of past that self provides. This, enabled by the evolution of language, makes possible autobiographical memory — the narrative of our lives that we humans all possess and which is the basis for consciousness.
This, briefly summarised, is the latest version of Damasio's theory. The story is told in prose of intermittently easygoing lucidity, but his primary training as a neurologist compels him into passages of detailed neuro-anatomy, locating brain regions functionally responsible for enabling particular aspects of consciousness. But which bits of the brain might be involved, though of passionate concern to neuroscientists, isn't the crucial issue — which is whether Damasio has thereby solved what has been called the "hard problem" of consciousness studies by relating third-person "objective" accounts to first-person subjectivity.
I fear that however convincing his evolutionary story may be, simply to state that these brain processes translate into mental experience leaves us, despite some very elegant hand-waving, exactly where we were before. And herein lies the paradox of the book's subtitle.
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Brains are not conscious; people are. Our brains enable our consciousness, just as our legs enable our walking, as the anthropologist Tim Ingold has pointed out. But to attribute the property of a whole to that of a part is to commit what philosophers refer to as the mereological fallacy one that I confess I have not been entirely innocent of in my own writings. This is the state of being aware and equanimous to the complete experience of here and now.
This is the way of Buddhism, with regards to mind and the ultimate nature of minds and persons. Due to the mind—body problem , a lot of interest and debate surrounds the question of what happens to one's conscious mind as one's body dies. During brain death all brain function permanently ceases, according to the current neuroscientific view which sees these processes as the physical basis of mental phenomena, the mind fails to survive brain death and ceases to exist.
This permanent loss of consciousness after death is often called " eternal oblivion ". The belief that some spiritual or incorporeal component soul exists and that it is preserved after death is described by the term " afterlife ". Parapsychology is a study of certain types of paranormal phenomena , or of phenomena which appear to be paranormal but it does not have any scientific basis [66] for instance precognition , telekinesis and telepathy.
Rhine tried to popularize "parapsychology" using a fraudulent techniques as a replacement for the earlier term "psychical research", during a shift in methodologies which brought experimental methods to the study of psychic phenomena. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. For other uses, see Mind disambiguation. This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.
January Learn how and when to remove this template message. This article's tone or style may not reflect the encyclopedic tone used on Wikipedia. See Wikipedia's guide to writing better articles for suggestions. February Learn how and when to remove this template message. Nous , Reason , Modularity of mind , and Mental process. Cognitive neuroscience and Thought identification. This section needs expansion.
You can help by adding to it. Neuropsychology , Psyche , and Unconscious mind. This section needs additional citations for verification. September Learn how and when to remove this template message. Philosophy of artificial intelligence. Cambridge University Press, , vol. A Path to Wisdom". Current Psychology Submitted manuscript. Brain body mind oscillations in scope of uncertainty principle.
Retrieved 18 April The Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved 7 September An Introduction to Brain and Behavior 3rd ed. Retrieved 11 May Fundamentals of Human Physiology 4th ed. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. Ecological dominance, social competition, and coalitionary arms races: Why humans evolved extraordinary intelligence" PDF.
Problems in the Philosophy of Mind. Oxford Companion to Philosophy. Physical control of the mind; towards a psycho civilized society. Archived from the original on Discourse on Method and Meditations on First Philosophy. About Behaviorism , pp. About Behaviorism , Chapter 7: Psychobiology , Prentice Hall, Inc.
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Retrieved 9 March Despite decades of experimental research Philosophy of Science and the Occult. The essential problem is that a large portion of the scientific community, including most research psychologists, regards parapsychology as a pseudoscience, due largely to its failure to move beyond null results in the way science usually does. Ordinarily, when experimental evidence fails repeatedly to support a hypothesis, that hypothesis is abandoned.
Within parapsychology, however, more than a century of experimentation has failed even to conclusively demonstrate the mere existence of paranormal phenomenon, yet parapsychologists continue to pursue that elusive goal.
New Ideas in Psychology. The case of psychoanalysis and parapsychology". Mind at Wikipedia's sister projects. Philosophy portal Mind and brain portal Neuroscience portal. Retrieved from " https: Mind Cognitive science Philosophy of mind Concepts in metaphysics Emergence.
Self Comes to Mind: Constructing the Conscious Brain by Antonio Damasio - review
Views Read Edit View history. In other projects Wikimedia Commons Wikiquote. This page was last edited on 9 December , at By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikibooks has a book on the topic of: Kle A leading neuroscientist offers the latest research and many new ideas on the connections between brain circuitry and conscious experience. Klemm presents the latest research findings on this elusive brain-mind connection in a lucidly presented, accessible, and engaging narrative.
The author focuses on how mind emerges from nerve-impulse patterns in the densely-packed neural circuits that make up most of the brain, suggesting that conscious mind can be viewed as a sort of neural-activity-based avatar. As an entity in its own right, mind on the conscious level can have significant independent action, shaping the brain that sustains it through its plans, goals, interests, and interactions with the world. Thus, in a very literal sense, we become what we think.
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Against researchers who argue that conscious mind is merely a passive observer and free will an illusion, the author presents evidence showing that mental creativity, freedom to act, and personal responsibility are very real. He also delves into the role of dream sleep in both animals and humans, and explains the brain-based differences between nonconscious, unconscious, and conscious minds.
Written in a jargon-free style understandable to the lay reader, this is a fascinating synthesis of recent neuroscience and intriguing hypotheses. Paperback , pages. Published April 8th by Prometheus Books first published January 1st To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about Mental Biology , please sign up. Lists with This Book. Oct 11, Peter Mcloughlin rated it really liked it Shelves: The author strikes me as someone who appreciates Dan Dennett's attempt to reduce consciousness to the physical but wants to leave the door open to God, religion, and the afterlife.
I am not totally unsympathetic I often engage in my own evasive tactics against physicalism gloomy conclusions about death mortality will make such incentives. I am less sympathetic with his religious yearnings old-time religion and God, no thank you. Anyway, there is some good science in here with an admixture of The author strikes me as someone who appreciates Dan Dennett's attempt to reduce consciousness to the physical but wants to leave the door open to God, religion, and the afterlife. Anyway, there is some good science in here with an admixture of religious speculation.
It is left to any reader to sort it out. Oct 24, Bob Collins rated it it was amazing.
Mental Biology: The New Science of How the Brain and Mind Relate - W.R. Klemm - Google Книги
A materialist who believes we have free will - almost a contradiction - Dr. Klemm tackles the "mind-body" problem with an interesting hypothesis about how the mined consciousness might emerge from the brain with a biological explanation. He includes ideas about how scientists might test his hypothesis.
He deals intelligently with recent research that have lead many scientists to doubt that we have free will determinism. Klemm starts with a primer of the biology of the brain, and then moves A materialist who believes we have free will - almost a contradiction - Dr. Sure to be controversial in neurological services, Dr. Tomas rated it really liked it Apr 11, Vaggelis rated it it was ok Aug 15,