Somatic Markers, Rhetoric, and Post-truth

Somatic Markers, Rhetoric, and Post-truth

Emotions play an important role in many volitional processes. In this regard, the somatic marker hypothesis (SMH) (Damasio et al., 1991; Damasio, 1994, 1996) has proven enormously influential in cognitive science. Despite having been formulated more than two decades ago, much related bibliography has appeared in recent years (e.g., Leland and Grafman, 2005; Reimann and Bechara, 2010; Olsen et a...

When We Can’t Wait on Truth: The Nature of Rhetoric in The Rhetoric of Science

Bad faith, medical education, and post-truth

The choice to not study ‘actual use’ of feedback in clinical practice seems to me to be a flaw in research design, an inevitable consequence of which is that the study report is peppered with use of the conditional tense—‘would’ and ‘could’. In situating the study’s results in the world of the possible and not the actual, the authors mirror the common medical education practice of learning thro...

Two Myths about Somatic Markers

Research on patients with damage to ventromedial frontal cortices suggests a key role for emotions in practical decision making. This field of investigation is often associated with Antonio Damasio’s Somatic Marker Hypothesis—a putative account of the mechanism through which autonomic tags guide decision making in typical individuals. Here we discuss two questionable assumptions—or ‘myths’—surr...

post-traumatic stress disorder and somatic ... resources

there is little question anymore about the reality of post- traumatic stress disorder(ptsd) as a disorder. for some, this disorder progressively worsens over time and appears to affect nearly all aspects of life, including work, interpersonal relationships, physical health, and view of self. the severity of ptsd may lead to repeated hospitalizations over the years and may require ongoing outpat...