''Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain'' is a 1994 book by

neuroscientist A neuroscientist (or neurobiologist) is a scientist who has specialised knowledge in neuroscience, a branch of biology that deals with the physiology, biochemistry, psychology, anatomy and molecular biology of neurons, neural circuits, and glial ...

António Damásio Antonio Damasio ( pt, António Damásio) is a Portuguese-American neuroscientist. He is currently the David Dornsife Chair in Neuroscience, as well as Professor of Psychology, Philosophy, and Neurology, at the University of Southern California, ...

describing the physiology of rational thought and decision, and how the faculties could have evolved through Darwinian natural selection. Damásio refers to

René Descartes René Descartes ( or ; ; Latinized: Renatus Cartesius; 31 March 1596 – 11 February 1650) was a French philosopher, scientist, and mathematician, widely considered a seminal figure in the emergence of modern philosophy and science. Ma ...

' separation of the mind from the body (the mind/body dualism) as an error because reasoning requires the guidance of emotions and feelings conveyed from the body. Written for the layperson, Damásio uses the dramatic 1868 railroad accident case of Phineas Gage as a reference for incorporating data from multiple modern clinical cases, enumerating damaging cognitive effects when feelings and reasoning become anatomically decoupled. The book provides an analysis of diverse clinical data contrasting a wide range of emotional changes following frontal lobe damage as well as lower (medulla) and anterior areas of the brain such as the anterior cingulate. Among his experimental evidence and testable hypotheses, Damásio presents the "

somatic marker hypothesis The somatic marker hypothesis, formulated by Antonio Damasio and associated researchers, proposes that emotional processes guide (or bias) behavior, particularly decision-making. ''Descartes' Error'' "Somatic markers" are feelings in the body th ...

", a proposed mechanism by which emotions guide (or bias) behavior and decision-making, and positing that rationality requires emotional input. He argues that René Descartes' "error" was the dualist separation of mind and body, rationality and emotion.

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* **Harper Perennial, 1995 paperback: **Penguin, 2005 paperback reprint:

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* * * *{{cite journal , last1=Marg, first1=Elwin , date=1995 , title= Review: Descartes’ error , journal=Optometry and Vision Science , volume=72 , issue=11 , url=https://journals.lww.com/optvissci/Citation/1995/11000/DESCARTES__ERROR__Emotion,_Reason,_and_the_Human.13.aspx , access-date=2021-09-08

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