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Current
Interest: The mind-brain problem.
Since I retired in 1999, I focused on the implications of neuropharmacology
and neuroscience for the understanding of the mind-brain relationships.
Actually, trying to answer questions about human nature was what motivated
me to get into Neurology and Neuroscience in the first place. I wrote
my thesis on “Unilateral Neglect of Visual Space” that
is produced mainly by right parietal lobe lesions. The experiences
at the neurology ward, in psychiatry as well as the observations on
the mechanisms of action of psychoactive drugs convinced me that the
mind is purely physical. However, the problem with this conclusion
is that it contradicts not only our own subjective feelings, but almost
our whole culture, from early civilizations up to the present. I believe
that the most misleading element is that the brain does not sense itself.
We have the proprioceptive machinery to perceive the physicality of
our muscles and skin, but we do not sense the neural processes that
control our feelings and our own behavior. Thus, I have tried to address
some of these problems in several papers on the relationship between
our physical and spiritual natures.
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