Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain

In the preface of the 2005 edition, Damasio offers a brief overview on the development of neuroscience. The early 20th century pioneers of the scientific world—Charles Darwin, William James, Sigmund Freud, and Charles Sherrington to name a few—tackled the issue of human emotions. However, rather than flourishing into the field of neuroscience, the following decades saw a dissociation between research on feelings and research on the human brain. After the publication of Descartes’ Error, the scientific world saw a renewed interest in viewing emotion as part of the field of neurobiology. The preface reiterates Damasio’s somatic-marker hypothesis, which posits that emotions are invaluable to reasoning and decision-making; although they can cause bias if felt too strongly, they do not always hinder reason. The preface then briefly addresses common misconceptions about Damasio’s hypothesis that have circulated over the years.

Descartes’ Error’s main contribution to the field of neuroscience is the hypothesis that the reasoning system evolved from the automatic emotional system. Emotions, which associate (or “mark”) specific physiological responses with specific stimuli, can increase decision-making expediency and effectiveness, ensuring better chances of survival in the natural selection process. The “gut feeling” is an overt instance of this marking, while neuromodulation (such as the automatic release of certain hormones in the

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