Psy 115a sec 13

The debate of nature versus nurture has been around since man first began to understand development and genetic heredity. The question is, what determines a person’s personality and talents. There is no question that athletes genetically are often disposed towards their sports, but without the proper training, or just having been exposed to the game, they would not have become the amazing athletes they are. It is like trying to ask, "which came first, the chicken or the egg?" The two are inseparable just as are experience and heredity in determining one’s character.

Damasio would like to understand what specific parts of the brain control, perhaps house is a better word, specific aspects of the mind and personality. What he finds is that the frontal lobes, once believed to be expendable, play not only a role in emotion, but also a role in making decisions. This idea is somewhat at odd with society’s general belief that that emotion and reason are nearly polar opposites. That just goes to show how limited our understanding of the brain is. As Bronowski said, "the brain must be using some statistical language which is quite unlike human language" (p. 102). The strength of the brain is in its interconnectedness with all of the body’s components and its close knit inner circuitry. One part of the brain connects to many other parts via the vast network of axons. When one part of the brain is damaged, the effects could show up not only in the parts of behavior specifically performed by that part of the brain, but in any task that the damaged part of the brain plays any role in, no matter how subtle.

The question some seem to be trying to answer is, "What affects personality more: the structure and make-up of the brain or experience?" What they should be asking is how does experience actually, physically affect the brain, and how does the nature of the brain affect the mind’s perception of and participation in experience. These I think are the questions that Damasio is working on and are the ones that will bring us too a deeper understanding of the nature of the brain and the mind.

Damasio, through study of medical cases, has helped to further our understanding of the connection of the frontal lobe brain damage to, not only emotional irregularities, but also problems with making personal and social decisions. Damasio believes that emotions, thought to be ultimately indefinable and uncontainable, control the final stages of the decision making process. The possibilities presented are given weight in the form of a feeling about it based on possible outcomes, and hopefully, the best decision is made according to that feeling. If the parts of the brain responsible for emotions and feelings, the frontal lobes, are damaged, that emotional weight is distributed either improperly or not at all. Either outcome can be devastating, causing bad decisions or no real decisions at all.

I often have great difficulty focusing on the task set before me. I have been known to procrastinate to the point that I get myself into trouble. Another aspect of my personality is my relatively calm demeanor. I am not easily brought to anger or for that matter to other obvious displays of much emotion at all. After reading from Damasio, I wonder if the two are connected. One of the patients was described as being so easily sidetracked that he could not even perform the simple task of sorting files. This reminds me of times when I have, instead of doing important homework, simply watched television. Somehow, I felt that it would be all right. Watching TV was as good or better of a thing to do at the time even though I knew that I should, according to logic, be working. I would not say that I have an attention deficit disorder, rather something else a less active portion of my brain. I do not claim to be brain damaged, but Damasio has suggested a possible understanding of a part of my nature to me.

I have managed what I consider nothing more than a character flaw through attempts at discipline. I have never tried any medicines to combat my struggle with focusing on tasks, but after this reading, I think that it might be possible to target drugs at this specific aspect of one’s personality. Instead of dulling the tendency to be distracted, the drug could enhance the tendency to make beneficial decisions by stimulating the parts of the brain responsible for emotion. The scary thing about psychologically aimed drugs such as these is that just as we do not fully understand the effects of brain damage in humans, we cannot fully understand the effects any drug could have on the human brain.

Why do some people react differently than others when placed in similar situations? The answer lies in the brain, in its structure, and in its contents. The two are totally intertwined and interdependent. The chemicals of the brain can be altered medically, but this must be done with caution. The brain is a delicate organ of which no part is expendable.