Application of the somatic marker hypothesis to individual differences in decision making

2003 ◽  
Vol 65 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-88 ◽  
Author(s):  
Atsunobu Suzuki ◽  
Akihisa Hirota ◽  
Noriyoshi Takasawa ◽  
Kazuo Shigemasu
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Somatic Marker ◽  
Somatic Marker Hypothesis ◽  
Marker Hypothesis

The Somatic Marker Hypothesis and Political Life

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Verweij ◽  
Antonio Damasio
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Cognitive Skills ◽  
Iowa Gambling Task ◽  
Empirical Support ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Somatic Marker ◽  
Affect And Cognition ◽  
Somatic Marker Hypothesis ◽  
Past Experiences ◽  
Marker Hypothesis

The somatic marker hypothesis has not always been fully understood, or properly applied, in political science. The hypothesis was developed to explain the personally and socially harmful decision-making of neurological patients who appeared to have largely intact cognitive skills. It posits that affect (consisting of emotions, feelings, and drives) facilitates and expands cognition, is grounded in states of bodily physiology and on the processing of those states in the entire nervous system, and is shaped by a person’s past experiences in similar situations. Thus far, it has received empirical support from lesion studies, experiments based on the Iowa Gambling Task, and brain imaging studies. The somatic marker hypothesis is not compatible with key assumptions on which various influential political and social approaches are based. It disagrees with the largely cognitive view of decision-making presented in rational choice analysis. Contrary to behavioral public policy, the somatic marker hypothesis emphasizes the extent to which affect and cognition are integrated and mutually enabling. Finally, it differs from poststructuralist frameworks by highlighting the constraints that evolutionarily older bodily and neuronal networks impose on decision-making. Rather, the somatic marker hypothesis implies that political decision-making is socially constructed yet subject to constraints, is often sluggish but also is prone to wholesale, occasional reversals, takes place at both conscious and unconscious levels, and subserves dynamic, sociocultural homeostasis.

The somatic marker hypothesis and the possible functions of the prefrontal cortex

1996 ◽  
Vol 351 (1346) ◽  
pp. 1413-1420 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
The Body ◽  
Human Reasoning ◽  
Covert Action ◽  
Somatic Marker ◽  
Frontal Lobe Functions ◽  
Somatic Marker Hypothesis ◽  
Selection Of ◽  
Marker Hypothesis

In this article I discuss a hypothesis, known as the somatic marker hypothesis, which I believe is relevant to the understanding of processes of human reasoning and decision making. The ventromedial sector of the prefrontal cortices is critical to the operations postulated here, but the hypothesis does not necessarily apply to prefrontal cortex as a whole and should not be seen as an attempt to unify frontal lobe functions under a single mechanism. The key idea in the hypothesis is that ‘marker’ signals influence the processes of response to stimuli, at multiple levels of operation, some of which occur overtly (consciously, ‘in mind’) and some of which occur covertly (non-consciously, in a non-minded manner). The marker signals arise in bioregulatory processes, including those which express themselves in emotions and feelings, but are not necessarily confined to those alone. This is the reason why the markers are termed somatic: they relate to body-state structure and regulation even when they do not arise in the body proper but rather in the brain’s representation of the body. Examples of the covert action of ‘marker’ signals are the undeliberated inhibition of a response learned previously; the introduction of a bias in the selection of an aversive or appetitive mode of behaviour, or in the otherwise deliberate evaluation of varied option-outcome scenarios. Examples of overt action include the conscious ‘qualifying’ of certain option-outcome scenarios as dangerous or advantageous. The hypothesis rejects attempts to limit human reasoning and decision making to mechanisms relying, in an exclusive and unrelated manner, on either conditioning alone or cognition alone.

scholarly journals Studying the mechanisms of the Somatic Marker Hypothesis in Spiking Neural Networks (SNN)

2013 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 35-42
Author(s):  
Alejandro Jiménez-Rodríguez ◽  
Luis Fernando Castillo ◽  
Manuel González
Keyword(s):  
Neural Networks ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Spiking Neural Networks ◽  
Recurrent Networks ◽  
Somatic Marker ◽  
Somatic Marker Hypothesis ◽  
Emotional Bias ◽  
Marker Hypothesis

In this paper, a mechanism of emotional bias in decision making is studied using Spiking Neural Networks to simulate the associative and recurrent networks involved. The results obtained are along the lines of those proposed by A. Damasio as part of the Somatic Marker Hypothesis, in particular, that, in absence of emotional input, the decision making is driven by the rational input alone. Appropriate representations for the Objective and Emotional Values are also suggested, provided a spike representation (code) of the information.

scholarly journals On the somatic marker hypothesis

2015 ◽  
Vol 58 (2) ◽  
pp. 65-72
Author(s):  
Miroslava Trajkovski
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Neural Mechanism ◽  
Somatic Marker ◽  
Perceptual Theory ◽  
Somatic Marker Hypothesis ◽  
Made In ◽  
Marker Hypothesis

The somatic marker hypothesis is the hypothesis of the neural mechanism which is spontaneously triggered in the process of decision making. It is about bodily changes that accompany certain ideas we relate to the prospects of our choices. The somatic marker is the feeling of these changes occurring before the decision is made. In the paper I deal with the hypothesis of Antonio Damasio and his associates which is related to the perceptual theory of emotions that claims that the feeling of bodily changes precedes the feeling of emotion.

Disadvantageous decision-making profiles in substance dependents / Patrón de toma de decisiones. Desventajosas en pacientes drogodependientes

2006 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos Dante Gómez
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Measuring Instrument ◽  
Social Reintegration ◽  
Somatic Marker ◽  
Therapeutic Program ◽  
The Social ◽  
Toma De Decisiones ◽  
Somatic Marker Hypothesis ◽  
Marker Hypothesis

En este trabajo se exponen los resultados de una investigación cuyos objetivos consistieron en: determinar el patrón de Toma de Decisiones de pacientes drogodependientes, correlacionar los perfi les correspondientes a pacientes que se encuentran transitando la Fase de Admisión y los que se hallan en la Fase de Reinserción social de un Tratamiento de Rehabilitación, y obtener el índice de efi cacia del Programa Terapéutico al cual asisten ambos grupos. Se trata de un estudio de corte transversal en donde 20 sujetos conformaron la muestra. Se describe la Hipótesis del Marcador Somático, que es el marco teórico que fundamenta la pertinencia del instrumento de medición del proceso de toma de Decisiones utilizado en este estudio. Los resultados indican la presencia de un patrón de elecciones: desventajosas en los pacientes de la fase de admisión y ventajosas en pacientes de la fase de reinserción social, señalando un elevado índice de efi cacia del tratamiento de asistencia multimodal. AbstractIn this article the results of an investigation in which the objectives consisted of: determining the decision-making profi les of substance dependents, correlating the profi les corresponding to patients who are going through the Phase of Admission and of those that are in the Phase of social Reintegration of a Treatment of Rehabilitation, and obtaining the index of effectiveness of the Therapeutic Program which both groups attended are shown. This is a cross section study in which 20 subjects conformed the sample. The Somatic Marker Hypothesis is described, in that it is the theoretical frame that bases the validity of the measuring instrument of the decision making process used in this study. The results indicate the presence of a pattern of elections: disadvantageous to patients of the admission phase and advantageous to patients of the social reintegration phase, indicating a high index of effectiveness of the treatment of multimode attendance.

A Somatic Marker Perspective of Political Decision Making

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xavier Noël ◽  
Nematolla Jaafari ◽  
Antoine Bechara
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Risk Taking ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
Somatic Marker ◽  
Somatic Marker Hypothesis ◽  
Considerable Pressure ◽  
Political Realm ◽  
Political Decision Making ◽  
Psychopathic Tendencies ◽  
Marker Hypothesis

Decisions on matters affecting a group by a member of that group (e.g., decisions on a political choice) engage a mix of cognitive and emotion-based resources. Political decision-making involves rationality, but also empathy, intuition, compassion, morality, and fairness. Importantly, coping with uncertainty, assuming risk, dealing with huge responsibilities and resisting disappointment and considerable pressure are also crucial. Some of those decision-making elements from a neurocognitive framework proposed under the somatic marker hypothesis (SMH) are developed here. Based on the observation of abnormal decision-making characterizing patients with ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC), the SMH affords discussions of mechanisms involved in antisocial decision-making in the political realm, such as engaging in immoral and corrupt behaviors. In addition, the SMH sheds light on pivotal attributes required for good leadership and governance, such as resistance to pressure, risk-taking, seduction, and dominance, discussed with respect to modern theories of psychopathic tendencies in the context of political decision-making.

Does a Functioning Mind Need a Functioning Body? Some Perspectives from Postclassical Computation

2011 ◽  
pp. 275-289
Author(s):  
Colin G. Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Point Of View ◽  
Driven Systems ◽  
Somatic Markers ◽  
Somatic Marker ◽  
The World ◽  
Abstract Class ◽  
Somatic Marker Hypothesis ◽  
Bodily States ◽  
Complex Computer ◽  
Marker Hypothesis

In recent years, the idea that somatic processes are intimately involved in actions traditionally considered to be purely mental has come to the fore. In particular, these arguments have revolved around the concept of somatic markers, i.e., bodily states that are generated by mind and then reperceived and acted upon. This chapter considers the somatic marker hypothesis and related ideas from the point of view of postclassical computation, i.e., the view that computing can be seen as a property of things-in-the-world rather than of an abstract class of mathematical machines. From this perspective, a number of ideas are discussed: the idea of somatic markers extending into the environment, an analogy with hardware interlocks in complex computer-driven systems, and connections with the idea of “just-do-it” computation.

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