Self Comes to Mind: Constructing the Conscious Brain [Hardcover]

Damasio discusses the phenomenon of consciousness mainly from the perspectives of neurobiology and evolutionary biology, but also makes interesting points about the philosophical, psychological and cultural significance of his ideas. If you are an interested layman like me rather than an expert, then you might find it helpful to read Chapters 1, 10 and 11 first in order to gain a broad understanding of the framework being offered. Chapters 2-9 are often highly detailed and technical, and threaten information overload if delved into unprepared.

As the title of the book indicates, Damasio argues that in order to be conscious a brain needs to construct 'maps' or 'images' of the knower as well as of the known. Subjectivity requires a subject, but the subject isn't a soul or a homunculus but a self which is being continually generated by interacting neural structures. In the course of evolution, processes supplying a protoself developed into processes supplying a core self, which in turn developed into processes supplying the autobiographical self typical of humans.

The merits of this book lie in the clarity of expression, which makes difficult material accessible to a lay audience, and encourages us to think about the whole area of consciousness and the self. The author's main theme is the influence of inputs from the body on consciousness. In itself this represents an advance on much of twentieth century consciousness studies, with its tendency to view the brain as an isolated computer.

Problems arise with the degree of emphasis on bodily inputs, at the expense of inputs from the external world. The author focuses almost exclusively on inputs from the body to the brain stem. This approach looks to ignore a lot of what has been going on in recent neuroscience, where there is a model of sensory inputs from the external world that are evaluated in the orbitofrontal cortex. Processing here directly correlates to subjective experience, with this region projecting to the basal ganglia areas that are important in determining behaviour.

Damasio does lay stress on the role of dopamine and other neuromodulators, but does not bring out the fact that although the nuclei producing these molecules are in the brain stem, it is the basal ganglia that are substantially responsible for their release into the rest of the brain. He also fails to say much about how sensory inputs are processed by the amygdala and orbitofrontal before being signaled to the body, creating an interactive process rather than the simple feed forward implied in this book. In all Damasio has given us a model that is in significant conflict with some recent research. This is not to say his position is wrong, but he needs to provide more justification as to why his picture is at such variance with this research.

This is undoubtedly Antonio Damasio's best book to date. 'Looking for Spinoza' was
somewhat disappointng but then dealing with philosophy is when he is at his weakest.
Like all good specialists he is excellent in the field he specialises in. A philosopher of
mind may be well-read in the science of neurology but that does not make him a
neuroscientist anymore than reading a lot of philosophy puts Damasio on a par with the
philosophers although he clearly is very well-read in philosophy.

For the benefit of anyone who is not at all familiar with this book or its author, this is a
brilliant neuroscientist who is very keen on trying to explain consciousness and through his
work with brain-damaged patients has had the opportunity to see when, where and how
consciousness is impaired by brain damage. He has formulated a number of hypotheses
including the well-known somatic marker hypothesis that result, in this book, in a
framework that the author hopes can be tested in the coming years to produce a proper
theory. This is not the answer and is not presented as such. It is a work in progress but it
makes a very important contribution to our understanding of how the human brain works,
how it evolved to be that way and why consciousness came about even if there is still a lot
that requires a proper explanation. No dead-end jobs in neuroscience!

Criticisms in reviews and comments here about the book's editing seem to me entirely
unjustified. The book seems to be intended for everyone from neoroscientists,
psychologists, psychiatrists and philosophers down to the interested layman and given
that remit it does very well with what is an incredibly complex subject. Question the remit
certainly, but not the editing. No, it is not a "light read" but if you want a light read then
perhaps avoid philosophy and neuroscience completely. An intelligent reader will no
doubt skim over areas that are not relevant to his or her interest but still come away with
masses of interesting insights since the book is full of them.

If, like me you are interested from the philosophy of mind point of view then you will
probably want to read a number of philosophers in the field as well if you have not already
done so and you'll note that at the time of writing this book Damasio had not read David
Chalmers recent book "The Character of Consciousness" that puts forward a big
challange regarding our explaining of consciousness. It is also the hardest challenge to
the position that Damasio along with many other scientists subscribe to that "brain states
are mental states". Peter Carruthers and Andy Clark are also well worh reading in
conjunction with Damasio as well as the 'Philosophy of Mind' collected papers edited by
Chalmers. Humphrey's "Seeing Red" and Prinz's "Gut Reactions" are also very good. I'd
also recommend 'Neuroscience & Philosophy' by Bennett, Dennett, Hacker and Searle if
you are at all interested in the debate about using psychological predicates when
discussing the brain as Damasio was one of the many criticised by Bennett and Hacker in
this respect (along with Dennett and Searle who give their responses in the aformentioned
book).

If you have never read Antonio Damasio before and don't work in the same field then I
recommend you do not make the mistake that other reviewers and commenters appear to
have made and start with this book. Although there are overlaps, reading "Descartes'
Error" and "The Feeling of What Happens" will put you in a much better position to
appreciate this book.

If you are new to philosophy then "Understand Philosophy" in the 'Teach Yourself' series
isn't a bad starting point. I'm sure other people have very different opinions about book
recommendations but I hope these are of some use.