Introduction to Part III

Abstract

Just as the nature-nurture distinction is declining in its usefulness, so is the mindbody or mind-brain dichotomy.The closer we look at cognitive functionsperception, feeling, memory, language, reasoning -the more we see the involvement of the body.For an organism able to find its way in the world, the bioregulatory brain functions weave body and mind together.Antonio Damasio notes the neglect of emotion in 20th century cognitive science and neuroscience and suggests that without considering emotion we cannot place the mind in relation to its evolutionary origins, nor to its role relative to the organism as a whole.Without emotion we cannot understand how the organism maintains homeostasis in the face of environmental challenges and manages to survive in the complex world of society and culture.Emotions, and the feelings that follow emotions, are an integral part of the value systems necessary for laying down long-term memory and for reasoning and conscious decision-making involving life-directing choices.Elsewhere, Damasio shows how brain damage in sites such as the prefrontal cortex alters emotions and their integration with cognitive function in such a way that, although an individual's basic reasoning capacity may remain intact, the ability to operate normally in a social context is impaired, leading to inappropriate decisions in the social realm. 1 John Allman et al. describe recent research that considers how the brain integrates emotional and cognitive states and functions.Specifically, Allman describes how a so-called "limbic" system in the anterior cingulate cortex is in fact a highly evolved and specialized neocortical structure devoted to the regulation of emotional and cognitive behavior, undermining the prevailing belief that the term limbic (or emotional) entails primitive or precognitive functioning.He looks in particular at spindle cells that appear shortly after birth in higher primates, including humans, who among the primates possess the greatest number of such cells.These cells become tuned through experience and seem to thrive or suffer depending on stimulation or stress in early infancy.The spindle cells integrate a variety of reward-related emotional and cognitive brain functions and may be related to the ability to focus attention on a complex task.There is intense dorsal cingulate cortex involvement during problem-solving, error recognition, discrimination of affect in faces, and adaptively responding to changing conditions.The ventral cingulate cortex appears to be more involved than the dorsal in emotional self-control, a critical aspect of reasoning, particularly in social circumstances.Spindle cells are sensitive to experience.They are involved in child devel-