PSY100H1 Lecture 7: Lecture 7
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PSY100H1 Full Course Notes
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Document Summary
Damasio says that neuroanatomical understanding of consciousness is connected to our viscera. When someone hurts you, you process it not only at a high cognitive level, but through a physiological sensation of pain. Feeling of rejection can be lessened by painkillers. Sensory input -> autonomic arousal -> pfc (ventral-medial part) Creates a non-conscious bias that facilitates cognitive processing, in a certain direction (e. g. danger: reality and decisions that we experience are out of our control. Therefore, subtle physiological and affective reactions may be a key part of rational cognitive processing. A spike in physiological arousal explains the behavioral shift. Danger signal -> behavioral shift -> realization/understanding. We act and interpret our actions to create a reality justifying our actions. Test subjects with pfc damage take a little longer to figure the card gamble trick out: they do not register the arousal response (danger, they have no unconscious bias. Chose advantageously even before they realized which strategy was best.
