Antonio Damasio Professions : Professor Born : February 25, 1944 Browse All Authors Top 74 quotes by Antonio Damasio There is a sequence of events in our lives and so there's a temporal aspect to our experience that brings by itself, sense into the story. In other words, you were not walking before you were born and you were not doing X and Y before you did something else first. So there's a sequencing of events that imposes a certain structure to the story. Antonio Damasio events stories firsts We can be more or less conscious when you create grades of focus on a subject that is flowing in our stream of consciousness. Antonio Damasio grades consciousness focus We remove ourselves from the experience itself to a surrogate of the experience, which is whatever measure you take from the brain, be it the electroencephalogram or magnet encephalography or say functional magnetic resonance. So it's pretty tough to make those comparisons. Antonio Damasio resonance tough brain We're seeing it the same way, we're hearing the same way, we have the same conception of the situation. And so, for all purposes, we are operating with a very similar perception. Antonio Damasio hearing perception purpose If I use the word consciousness, in our lab, in our institute, what we mean is the special quality of mind, the special features that exist in the mind, that permit us to know, for example, that we, ourselves, exist, and that things exist around us. Antonio Damasio special mind mean Although when you look at people that say, from the same culture, roughly the same age, and not very difference intelligence, and you make a lot of detailed questions about the experiences of say colors, situations, and so on, you'll get very similar answers. Antonio Damasio differences color people There are things in our lives that take up an enormous importance and that become very dominant effects in our biography. And that comes out of a variety of reasons, but fundamentally comes out of how that particular experience connects with your effective systems of response. Antonio Damasio enormous biographies reason For pure joy, I look at a small painting by Arbit Blatas. An ocean liner is at the center of the composition, perhaps ready to depart. It holds the promise of discovery. Antonio Damasio ocean joy discovery Writing long hand is the last refuge. One needs the time it takes to put pencil to paper and let it run along the ruled line. Antonio Damasio writing running hands In 'Self Comes to Mind' I pay a lot of attention to simple creatures without brains or minds, because those 'cartooned abstractions of who we are' operate on precisely the same principles that we do. Antonio Damasio simple self brain You still have only one self and one identity. However, self, identity and personality are not things, they are not objects, and they certainly are not rigid. Instead, they are biological processes built within the brain from numerous interactive components, step by step, over a period of time. Antonio Damasio you personality self time Why do we have a brain in the first place? Not to write books, articles, or plays; not to do science or play music. Brains develop because they are an expedient way of managing life in a body. Antonio Damasio music brain life science Interestingly enough, not all feelings result from the body's reaction to external stimuli. Sometimes changes are purely simulated in the brain maps. Antonio Damasio result body brain sometimes Having a self, even a simple self, allows you to look into the world and put a mark over what is more important and less important. It's a way of classifying the world in terms of your own needs. Antonio Damasio look you simple self Similar Authors Bryan Stevenson professor Bruce Greenwald professor Bruce Ames professor Brian Wansink professor Brian Schmidt professor Brian Martin professor All Authors