Emotion and Reason The Cognitive Neuroscience of Decision Making

by Berthoz, Alain; Weiss, Giselle

• ISBN13: 9780198566274
• ISBN10: 0198566271
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-08-17
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Decision making is an area of profound importance to a wide range of specialities - for psychologists, economists, lawyers, clinicians, managers, and of course philosophers. Only relatively recently, though, have we begun to really understand how decision making processes are implemented inthe brain, and how they might interact with our emotions. 'Emotion and Reason' presents a groundbreaking new approach to understanding decision making processes and their neural bases. The book presents a sweeping survey of the science of decision making. It examines the brain mechanisms involved in making decisions, and controversially proposes thatmany of our perceptual actions are essentially decision making processes. Whether looking, listening, hearing, or moving, we choose to attend to certain stimuli, at the expense of others. In some psychiatric disorders the inability to respond selectively to certain stimuli can be harmful - suchpathologies of decision making are additionally considered. Berthoz also considers how many decision making processes involve an internal dialogue with our other self, and how this dialogue with our "doppelganger" might be represented in the brain. He considers the important implications that aneuroscience of decision making can have for the judiciary - how we apportion blame and responsibility; for economics - with discussion of the growing field of neuroeconomics; and for theories of management. Lastly he examines decision making and creativity - if perception relies in part ondecision making processes, how might this alter our view of the artistic process. Written by a neuroscientist of international fame and accessible for both scientists and non-scientists, this book is the most exhaustive examination of the science of decision making yet.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. ix
Is decision making rational or irrational?
The brain-gambler and logician	p. 3
Decision making and emotion	p. 23
The pathology of decision making	p. 51
Decision making with my second self
Fight or flight	p. 73
Walking and balance	p. 95
Deliberating with one's body: me and my second self	p. 109
Perception, preference, and decision making
To perceive visually is to decide: the physiology of doubt	p. 137
Decision making and shape recognition: ambiguity and rivalry	p. 155
Sensory conflict: perception of movement	p. 173
Fountains	p. 185
Magical thinking
The physiology of preference	p. 199
'I think, therefore I suppress'	p. 233
The brain as emulator and generator of strategies: the vagabond thought	p. 251
Epilogue	p. 279
Picture credits	p. 285
Index	p. 289
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