Knowing and Feeling Grown up Around This Deep Psychological, Philosophical and Anthropological Problem

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Henry Fuseli’s The Nightmare (1781) sparked debate among psychologists about consciousness and dreaming.

neuroscience soul; as some growing brain-pearl that explains feelings of self-identity; the living body; a memory connection to the past; a narrative of who I am. A vast literature has Knowing and feeling grown up around this deep psychological, philosophical and anthropological problem. Owen Flanagan is unconvinced by Antonio Damasio’s Yet Damasio does not engage with it. He argument that ‘the self’ is needed to explain consciousness. simply criticizes eighteenth-century philo- sopher David Hume’s scepticism that there is a self — writing that Hume “pulverized the he value of a popular science book judged “the abyssal separation of mind and self” — and sides with psychologist William depends on the author’s ability to sort body”. His later books touched on the neuro- James’s more embodied approach. and present evidence and to be aware science behind consciousness and free will. He also does not engage with the argu- Tof its limitations. In my view, experimental Self Comes to Mind is an upbeat but ments and evidence supplied by cognitive neuroscientist Antonio Damasio stretches long-winded and desultory stroll through scientists about the connection between too far in his latest work, Self Comes to Mind, Damasio’s musings on much of what he has consciousness and the self. Damasio offers in which he considers what the self is and thought about or worked on. With more than vague signposts to his thinking: he feels that how it connects to consciousness. 90 sections on disconnected topics, each the self is a process rather than a thing; it is Through his series of popular books, averaging a few pages, his writings come over necessary for consciousness; and it requires Damasio has become a major spokesman as a neuroscientist’s equivalent of haiku. The a ‘knower’ to be generated in the brain to for a humane science of the mind that knits grand titles of his essays, such as ‘Nature and witness experiences in order for the mind together reason and the emotions. His Culture’ or ‘Brain and Justice’, are not matched to become conscious. Yet he does not set out first and rightly celebrated best-seller was by insights. In this piecemeal collection, his scientific evidence to Descartes’ Error (Harper, 1995). It bemoaned thesis is hard to follow; in particular, it is not back up these claims. Nature.com the continuing legacy of what in 1949 philo- clear what he means by ‘the self’. According to most Martin Heisenberg sopher Gilbert Ryle called the “myth of the Philosophers have conveyed various views neuroscientists, con- on free will: ghost in the machine”, and what Damasio of the self over millennia: as an immaterial sciousness refers to go.nature.com/g4edfx

experience. We neuroscience seek to explain how consciousness arises from the brain and body Mind your head and, through evolutionary biology, Josie Glausiusz enjoys a thought-provoking exhibition. why it was selected for, emerged and became ubiquitous. o step into the human brain is like Brain: The Inside display. By contrast, the Self Comes Damasio’s views on being plunged into a pulsating bowl Story mammal brain makes to Mind: these issues are not of psychedelic spaghetti. At least, that American Museum of us much more flexible, Constructing the Natural History, fleshed out. As for Tis the sensation visitors experience on enter- thanks to our limbic Conscious Brain New York. antonio daMasio the mechanism, ing the Brain exhibition at the American Until 15 August 2011. system. It generates Pantheon: 2010. he recounts the Museum of Natural History in New York. emotions that are key 384 pp. $28.95, £25 accepted picture Bursts of light rush along a gigantic jumble of to our everyday survival and forms memories. that the brainstem, salvaged wires that hang from a ten-metre- If the limbic system is damaged, “our social thalamus and posteromedial cortices long walkway. The installation, by artist interactions are disrupted, and we are much play a big part. His ‘just-so’ answer on the Daniel Canogar, simulates the frenetic activity more impaired than if we lose the ability to evolutionary function of consciousness is of neurons as they fire electrical impulses. speak,” explains Zellner. unconvincing. The real human brain — a plastinated A panel shows some of the latest medical Damasio gives familiar descriptions of example of which is on display — seems puny advances to help those who have other kinds experiences that require an organism but after such a dramatic artwork. Yet this com- of brain impairment. Deep brain stimula- do not require a ‘self’. Most basic is simple plex organ, weighing only 1.4 kilograms and tion, in which a battery-powered, implanted sensory consciousness, as when an ani- filled with 100 billion neu- neurostimulator triggers mal experiences pain or pleasure, hunger rons, has enabled humans electrical activity in areas innin f .

or thirst (which Damasio calls the proto- to colonize the planet, create of the brain that control d H/

consciousness). Then there are more great works of art, build movement, has been used n M extended experiences, as when a raccoon robots and rockets, calcu- to treat more than 80,000 a foraging at a stream takes in the sights, late and cogitate, fall in love people with Parkinson’s dis- smells and sensations of its surround- and be conscious of our own ease. Transcranial magnetic ings (Damasio’s core consciousness). existence. The exhibition stimulation, the fastest- And there is self-consciousness — pos- covers all this and more. growing non-drug treatment sibly unique to humans — that includes An enchanting video for major depression, uses awareness of self-referential feelings such captures many of the brain’s a large electromagnetic coil as anxiety, or the story of one’s life or char- functions. As a graceful placed against the scalp to acter (autobiographical consciousness). young dancer performs generate painless electric Present in all these types of conscious- pliés and pirouettes in currents that stimulate brain ness, he says, is a ‘self process’. This may be an audition, a large-scale cells involved in mood con- involved in the ‘self as witness’ or the ‘self replica of the brain lights trol. It could some day be as protagonist’, but it is not clear why it is up different regions as used to treat schizophrenia necessary for the ‘self as experiencer’. In they become active. Her and bipolar disorder. Other fact, Damasio explicitly excludes dream- cere bellum coordinates devices use electrodes to ing — in which the sleeper has experi- movement and balance; her restore sight by stimulat- ences but lacks self-awareness — from limbic system triggers emo- ing neurons in the retina, the set of conscious experiences. This is tions and memories; her or allow people with limb obviously unwarranted. We have experi- auditory cortex interprets paralysis or no limbs to ences when dreaming and while under music; and her motor cortex Brain highlights the Kiki and Booba move a cursor on a computer anaesthetic, even though aspects of our sends messages to her experiment: 98% of people agree on simply by thinking about it. awareness disappear. Dreaming does not muscles. When she is nerv- which name matches which shape, Even more awe-inspiring require a self process, so consciousness ous, her amygdala triggers regardless of their native language. is another dangling tangle of does not either. regions of her brainstem to copper wires, again courtesy Just because ‘self’ is in our vocabulary send signals to her heart, speeding its beat. of Canogar, depicting the developing infant does not mean that it has any explanatory Using her prefrontal cortex, she consciously brain in utero. In the first five months of fetal role in a science of the mind. Damasio says controls her breathing to calm herself down. development, an astonishing 500,000 neurons nothing convincing as to why, in addition When she learns she has passed her test, her form every minute. Millions of connections to our fully embodied conscious beings, hippocampus allows her to save the happy continue to be made in the first few months of we ought to add the self, or self processes, memory in long-term storage. life, and each new skill stimulates the growth to the ontological table of elements. ■ Emotions play a big part in how our brains of neural links — even into adulthood and work, often overriding rational decision- old age. Such development is the goal of Owen Flanagan is James B. Duke making. There is a reason for that, says exhibition curator Rob DeSalle: “I want Professor of Philosophy and professor Margaret Zellner, a behavioural neuro- people’s brains to change as they go through of neurobiology and of psychological scientist at New York’s Rockefeller University this exhibition — for the better,” he says. ■ and brain sciences at Duke University, and a consultant to the exhibition. “A lizard Durham, North Carolina 27708, USA. brain is a very reflexive, automatic system,” Josie Glausiusz is based in New York City. e-mail: [email protected] she says, pointing to a stuffed green iguana on e-mail: [email protected]