David Låg Tomasi

Critical Neuroscience and Philosophy

A Scientific Re-Examination of the Mind-Body Problem

David Låg Tomasi
University of Vermont Integrative Health, University of Vermont Medical Center, Department of Inpatient Psychiatry, Burlington, VT, USA
ISBN 978-3-030-35353-7e-ISBN 978-3-030-35354-4
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-35354-4
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“A ‘scientific re-examination of the mind-body problem’ is certainly a ‘difficult task’ and Tomasi seems to navigate the rough water with a safe methodological approach. The book provides the reader with a comprehensive overview, which exhibits a remarkable balance in the presentation of disputed topics. In addition, the author provides the necessary tools to have both people with science or philosophy backgrounds acquainted to the topic.

Neuro-lovers will appreciate and learn from the presentation of the numerous neuroscience ‘sub-branches,’ together with details on the methodological approaches used in the neuroscience research. Philosophers will enjoy the freedom and degree of theoretical abstraction, unusual in neurobiology books. Tomasi does in fact analyse the ‘mind-body problem’ with a critical appraisal that combines the rigidness of the scientific method with the speculative insight and thoroughness of the philosophy. The combination of the two sources of knowledge makes this book a fundamental tool for those who share the need to bridge the (apparent) gap between science and philosophy.

Another key adjective for describing the book is multidisciplinary. The author spans from logic to quantum mechanics, from medicine to informatics, from religion to ethics, from theory to practice. In all the cases the rigor in defining critical words makes even a lay reader feel like taken by the hand during the journey.”

—Francesco Orzi,Professor of Neurology, Sapienza University of Rome (retired), and member of the Accademia dei Fisiocritici, Siena, Italy

“Critical Neuroscience and Philosophy is impressive in many ways—from the scope and variety of information analyzed to the inspiration that scientists, philosophers, and the wider public will find in it. Bringing together and setting apart mind and body, self and world provokes thought and evokes emotion. I read it without stopping for breath. Razor sharp till the last detail in such a difficult field as neuroscience in its relationship to existential problems.”

— Aneta Karageorgieva, Professor,former Chair of the Department of Philosophy, Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski” Bulgaria, and member of the Bulgarian Society for Analytic Philosophy

“Critical Neuroscience and Philosophy really resonated with me because every day at OVR I work at the intersection of the mind and body. I find myself in a feedback loop while pursuing a deeper understanding of their connection as well as how to manipulate both of them simultaneously to produce positive human outcomes. This involves looking for links between science and philosophy, emotion and reason, data and intuition. Tomasi’s book detailing how all of these elements are inextricably linked to one another, from a neurophysical standpoint is poignant. It is especially relevant today, not only to my work, but to how we collectively think about human factors across all fields, markets, and disciplines.”

—Aaron Wisniewski, CEO,OVR Technology LLC, USA

“David Tomasi has written simply the book we were waiting for, the book that the current fields in medicine and psychology badly need. Human beings are an amazing paradox between mind and body. The author has written really a remarkable book about the correlation between mind and body, from a neuroscientific standpoint. Soul and matter seen by a comprehensive and critical perspective of results in neuroscientific research and epistemological issues. Particularly notable is the choice to critically discuss also the applicability of these results and concepts in clinical medical and philosophical-existential situations.

This outstanding volume offers a complete overview of theoretical information about brain, psyche, culture, bringing an ideal combination of scientific and clinical perspectives to the topic. The author had the courage to say that philosophy is a basic approach toward neuroscience and more and more to speak about subjectivity in science, in terms of the unique truth we can reach and of the unique solution we have actually available to the mind-body problem.

This book offers a paradigm shifting approach, scientifically based, empirically researched, for all professionals in search of more refined ways to conceptualize connection between mind and body, up to reach the Triple-S Model: Self, Soul, Spirit as a solving review of the fascinating mystery of our double nature, spiritual and embodied at the same time.

A book that will change the way you think, a must read that I can’t recommend more highly.”

—Erica F. Poli, Psychiatrist-Psychotherapist,IEDTA, ISTDP Institute, EFP Group, Milan, Italy

“InCritical Neuroscience and Philosophy - A Scientific Re-Examination of the Mind-Body Problem, David Tomasi takes on a substantial task in this work on ‘Critical Neuroscience.’ He presents, in an entertaining, taxonomic style, the most important areas of scientific inquiry to ‘determine the theories, methods, techniques, and technologies used in recent times to investigate the connection between neural activation and multiple aspects of human nature’ (p.16). His work covers a vast and complex range of topics, starting from the purely biological physicalist viewpoint, discussing the most common subfields of neuroscience that deal with the neural underpinnings of psychological processes, with special attention to the central nervous system, particularly the brain. In the same way that Michel Foucault produced an archaeology of the human sciences in his bookThe Order of Things , Tomasi aims to achieve something similar in this book of sifting about neuroscience.

His work is critical in the epistemological sense of ‘providing a critique and criticism of the assumptions, methods, methodologies, theories, techniques, and technologies, and observation/interpretation of results in neuroscientific research,’ but is also critical in the sense of ‘applied and applicable to critical clinical-medical and philosophical-existential situations’ (p.13). But a central and consistent plank of his position to keeping in mind the principle that it is ‘impossible to completely avoid the subjective element in any scientific field dealing with human nature’ (p11), and challenges throughout the prevailing ‘Cartesian “dualistic” model of the primacy (“supremacy”) of human thought’ (p.41). And a significant conclusion on his part is his view that there is adequate ‘evidence of the existence of states, of multiple modalities of perceiving, understanding, and being, and of a non-physically-based-matter-based form of mind, soul, spirit’ (292).

What I appreciated about the work is that he achieves his aim of promoting the idea of Philosophy as a basic approach toward Neuroscience and consistently attempts to be flexible in ‘moving the focus back and forth from the smallest detail to the bigger picture’ (p.261). He also retains a certain pragmatism in the work and never claims to have found a final solution (to the mind-body problem) because ‘we do not think that there could be such thing as something “final” given’ (p.291).

I like the way that he consistently maintains, as a clinician, a view of another essential aspect of this study, i.e. the promotion of appropriate ideas for the amelioration of care for our patients’ (269). And, again in the same clinical vein, he looks for a balanced outcome in the subjectivity/scientific objectivity debate saying that ‘we should not try to eliminate (our) subjectivity in reaching a more objective understanding, and in the the same way we should not try to eliminate the place effect in reaching a more universal (statistically intended) healing method’ (292).

This work is very helpful to me as a practicing psychotherapist. Whilst I have a basic understanding of neuroscience and the mind-body debate, this work has substantially widened and deepened my understanding of the critical issues and debates in this area. A knowledge of neuroscience is essential in my clinical practice and David Tomasi’s taxonomic approach provides a valuable and concise insight into a vast area of clinical knowledge usually only accessible by experts in the neuroscience field.”

—Tom Conlon, Clinical Director,Tri-Factor Health, Ireland

Acknowledgments

Being critical is an essential part of every investigation. Writing a book on Critical Neuroscience and Philosophy certainly falls into this prescription, and the process behind it is the direct result of the many contributions and insights from all the wonderful people I have met through the years. A very special thank you goes to Rachel Daniel, Senior Editor, Madison Allums, Editorial Assistant and all the staff at Palgrave Macmillan for their continuous support, professionality and enthusiasm in this project.

I would like to acknowledge the fundamental contribution and support of Tom Conlon, Alexander Gungov, Allison Kaigle Holm and Sten Holm, Aneta Karageorgieva, Paola Lusini, Giuseppe Manganelli, Francesco Orzi, Erica Poli, Stephen Sammut, Joan Walker, Aaron and Sam Wisniewski. I extend my gratitude also to all clinical and academic staff, students, faculty at the University of Vermont and the University of Vermont Medical Center, the Vermont Academy of Sciences, the Accademia dei Fisiocritici and the International Academy of Sciences.

While opinions in regard to the mind–body problem vary almost as much as the shapes of snowflakes, in this analysis I also discovered that this diversity is not only incredibly complex and vast, but it represents the very nature of the discourse, while determining the best parameters of clinical intervention. In this regard, I cannot thank enough all the patients I had the privilege and honor to work with. They have shared their beautiful stories, their successes and their struggles, their minds and their hearts, in ways that have enriched my experience as a psychotherapist as well as, most importantly, a human being.

Last but absolutely not least, I would like to acknowledge the understanding, the support and the encouragement of my family both in Europe and in the United States, especially my parents Lino and Rosa, my wife Livija and my sons Lucas and Adrian.

This study, as every other study, is dedicated to you.

David Låg Tomasi
List of Figures
Fig.​ 1.​1 A left dorsolateral view of the brain, with focus on the cerebral cortex with the four lobes, the cerebellum and the limbic system.​ Highlighted are the central proprioceptive neural areas with the central sulcus dividing the primary motor cortex and the somatosensory cortex 9
 
Fig.​ 2.​1 The brain stem in the central nervous system (in red, including pons, medulla oblongata and spinal cord), seen here with the cerebellum (in green) 18
 
Fig.​ 2.​2 A rendering of the partial process part of the activation/​deactivation cycle involving G protein–coupled receptors (GPCRs) and related G protein–mediated signaling.​ Of note, the cyclic adenosine monophosphate signal pathway and the phosphatidylinos​itol signal pathway are two principal GPCR signal transduction pathways 21
 
Fig. 2.3 A general view of the most important neural elements, in particular microglial cell (a ), multipolar neuron (b ), oligodendrocyte (c ), myelinated axon with Schwann cell and node of Ranvier (d ), ependymal cell (e ), and astrocyte (f ) 23
 
Fig. 2.4 Analysis of embryonic neural development and brain growth after 25 days of gestation (a ), 35 days (b ), 40 days (c ), 50 days (d ), 100 days (e ), and after 9 months (f ). Highlighted, prosencephalon with optic vesicle (in green), mesencephalon (yellow), rhombencephalon (fuchsia), and spinal cord (light green) 27
 
Fig.​ 2.​5 Lateral view of the brain stem with mesencephalon, pons and medulla oblongata.​ Aside from sensorimotor functions and regulatory activities of the brain stem toward the respiratory and cardiac activity, this area of the central nervous system is relevant for the regulation of sleep patterns and wakefulness/​awareness/​consciousness and thus plays a primary role in the brain stem stroke syndrome at the root cause of locked-in syndrome 35
 
Fig.​ 3.​1 Left superior frontolateral view of the cerebrum with the limbic system with cingulate gyrus (green), hippocampus (blue), amygdaloid bodies (red), mammillary bodies (fuchsia), thalamic areas (brown), pineal gland (light orange), and brain stem (pink) 55
 
Fig.​ 3.​2 Lateral view of the brain with cerebrum (beige/​white) and cerebellum (maroon), with highlighted neural areas involved in emotional processing according to Pessoa (2008):​ somatosensory cortex, anterior insular cortex and anterior temporal lobe (blue), and orbitofrontal cortex (red, used most frequently) 61
 
Fig.​ 3.​3 Left lateral midsagittal section of the brain with serotonin pathways (red) and dopamine pathways (green).​ The two red dots represent the Raphe nuclei, and the two blue dots indicate the ventral tegmental area, while the aquamarine-highlighted areas indicate frontal cortex, nucleus accumbens, striatum and hippocampus 69
 
Fig.​ 4.​1 The amygdalae, as primary area of emotional, mnemonic and decision-making processing in the limbic system 91
 
Fig. 4.2 The process of neurogenesis as a reinterpretation of the model. In the bottom left ventricular zone, we observe the neural stem cell (neuroepithelial cell) and the neuron (silver), followed by the radial glial cell and the neuron (in blue and bright red, respectively), followed by type 3 cells (dark yellow), ependymal cell (gray/pink), subventricular-zone astrocyte (type 2 cell, in green) and oligodendrocyte precursor cell (in bright orange/yellow), all in the subventricular zone. In the white matter we observe oligodendrocytes (light orange) and ALDg1L + GFAP + (yellow) 104
 
Fig.​ 4.​3 A ventral, semitransparent and superimposed view of the brain showing inferior olives, flocculi, middle cerebellar peduncles, optic tract, nerve, and chiasm, olfactory bulb and corpus callosum, infundibulum, mammillary body, cerebellum, pyramid, and posterior perforated substance 109
 
Fig.​ 4.​4 Rendering of the basal ganglia with pallidum, striatum, substantia nigra and subthalamic nucleus 114
 
Fig.​ 5.​1 Rendering of a neuron with nucleus (purple), mitochondria (beige), endoplasmic reticulum (light green), dendrites and dendritic branches (green/​fluorescent green), microtubules (dark green), sections of the Golgi apparatus (orange/​red) and of the Nissl bodies (dark red), polyribosomes (dark purple) and axon (light blue) 129
 
Fig.​ 5.​2 A colored representation of the main elements of the brain stem, with the thalamus (light blue), the edge of cerebrum (green), the midbrain (light orange), the pons (bright orange), the cranial nerves (yellow), the edge of cerebellum (dark red), the medulla oblongata (purple) and the spinal cord (red) 133
 
Fig.​ 5.​3 Lateral view with the section of the eye including lateral rectus muscle, cranial nerves II, IV, V, VI and frontal, infraorbital, lacrimal, maxillary, nasociliary supraorbital, zygomatic nerves, as well as trigeminal ganglion 140
 
Fig.​ 6.​1 If the Cartesian analysis of the pineal gland did not survive modern neuroscientific research data, the pituitary gland is still referred to as the ‘master gland’ for its fundamental role in hormonal regulation at the intersection of endocrine and nervous systems.​ In this image, the pituitary gland is seen with anterior and posterior pituitary (in red and beige, respectively), optic chiasma (light orange), hypothalamic neurons in the paraventral nuclei (light blue), axons and neurons in the ventral hypothalamus and hypothalamic–hypophyseal tract through the infundibulum (aquamarine), hypothalamic neurons in the supraoptic nuclei (fuchsia) and venules (blue) for ACTH/​FSH/​GH/​LH/​PRL/​TSH and Oxytocin/​ADH in the anterior pituitary and posterior pituitary, respectively 149
 
Fig.​ 6.​2 Ventral and dorsal views of the human brain on the left and right side, respectively.​ The colors on the ventral view indicate the frontal lobe with higher mental functions (blue), the association area (in light green), the olfactory area (dark purple) and the motor functions in the cerebellum (orange), together with the brain stem (pink).​ The colors on the dorsal view indicate the frontal lobe with higher mental functions (blue), motor function areas, more specifically eye movement and orientation (light green) and initiation of voluntary muscles (dark red), followed by the sensory area (purple), somatosensory association area (orange), and Wernicke’s area (dark green).​ Finally, in yellow, the visual area in the occipital lobe is indicated 151
 
Fig. 6.3 (a ,b ) Sections of the spinal cord. Ina (right) we observe the spinal nerve and sensory root (1, in blue) the white matter with corticospinal tracts (2, in yellow), the gray matter with sensory and motor horns (3, in green, ventral and dorsal, respectively), the external layer of the dura mater (4, in red), as well as the central canal (at the center of the image, in black). Inb (left) we observe the fasciculus cuneatus (1) and gracilis (2), the vestibulo-spinal tract (3, 4), and the spino-cerebellar tract (5, 6), as well as the lateral corticospinal tracts (A1, A2), and the gray matter with the central canal (B) 182
 
Fig.​ 6.​4 The thalamus with the connection to the prefrontal cortex (1), the internal medullary lamina (2), the anterior nuclei (3), the intralaminar nuclei (4), the connection to the motor cortices (5), the VPM (6), the centrum medium (7), the connection to the posterior association areas (8), the lateral geniculate (9.​ to V1) and the medial geniculate (10.​ to A1) 185
 
Fig.​ 6.​5 The neural mechanisms of attention according to the model by Mangun and Hillyard (2012).​ In detail, the pathways originating in the brain stem cholinergic nuclei are here represented in red, the pathways originating in the locus coeruleus in green, and the pathways originating in the Raphe nucleus in blue.​ The feedback is indicated by the black arrow (1) and the feed forward by the light blue arrow (2), with the eye perspective and the focus of attention in the side plane-view (red) 199
 
Fig. 6.6 A comparison of the associative circuit (A., in light blue) involving the dorsolateral prefrontal and lateral orbitofrontal cortex, the limbic circuit (L., aquamarine) involving the limbic and paralimbic cortex, as well as the amygdala and the hippocampus, and the motor circuit (M., in orange) involving the sensorimotor and premotor cortex. This model has been investigated in detail by McBride inTrends in Neuroscience (2014) 202
 
Fig.​ 6.​7 Cross-sectional analysis of peripheral nerve with neural axon, surrounded by endoneurium, perineurium, fascicle, blood vessels and epineurium 206
 
Fig. 6.8 Analysis of the process of neurotransmission in developmental ethanol exposure according to the model of Valenzuela, Puglia, and Zucca (2014), with views of axon terminals, dendrites, glial cells, and Ca 2 channels in phase A and B 210
 
Fig.​ 7.​1 The concept of continuity of self and the interaction of the individual-subject with the external world of stimuli via sensory perception.​ As it is well known, the olfactory system has the particular feature of almost completely bypassing the thalamic analysis (decoding, amplifying and transmitting) in its paths toward cortical areas 226
 
Fig.​ 7.​2 Anatomical view of the ear in relation to auditory transmission (signaling in blue).​ Highlighted we can observe the ear canal and the eardrum or tympanic membrane (pink), the labyrinth (orange), the middle ear space (purple) and the cochlea (blue) 232
 
Fig.​ 7.​3 View of the Reticular Activating System (RAS), with thalamus and corpus subthalamicus, substantia nigra, medial and lateral lemniscus (including the nucleus and the decussation), decussation of the superior peduncle, reticular formation, the internal arcuate fibers, and the olive.​ The RAs play a very special role in the processes involved in alertness, arousal, attention, consciousness and habituation 242
 
Fig.​ 7.​4 Rendering of the comparative analysis of neural correlates of consciousness in humans according to the meta-analysis by Rees et al.​ (2002), showing localized areas (in red), Lumer et al.​ (1998, in aquamarine), Kleinschmidt et al.​ (1998, in light blue), Portas et al.​ (2000, in yellow) and Beck et al.​ (2001, in dark blue) 245