His claim that the lesion method in neurology (observing what functions are affected by damage to specific brain areas in a systematic manner) “is not the usual way that biologists investigate function and structure” is quite silly. McGinn is also suspicious of our attempts to explain complex mental phenomena in terms of anatomical structures and their interactions. To a philosopher who demanded that he define consciousness before studying it scientifically, Francis Crick once responded, “My dear chap, there was never a time in the early years of molecular biology when we sat around the table with a bunch of philosophers saying ‘let us define life first.’ We just went out there and found out what it was: a double helix.” In the sciences, definitions often follow, rather than precede, conceptual advances. But “forging ahead” is a concept alien to philosophers, even those as distinguished as McGinn. Each partial solution echoes back and forth with reward centers (amygdala), ensuring that art is a vastly more complex and multi-layered experience than mere pleasure, yet scientifically tractable.Įarly in any scientific enterprise, it is best to forge ahead and not get bogged down by semantic distinctions. Our brains have over thirty visual areas arranged hierarchically and at every stage a partially computed “solution” is fed back to earlier stages to bias further processing.

Are such stimuli merely arousing or attractive or both? That our analysis even throws up these questions is a big step forward in an otherwise nebulous field. Similarly, abstract art may stimulate cells that detect primitive forms that define objects. For example, I note that a nude glimpsed behind a shower curtain is more aesthetically pleasing, although presumably less arousing, than one that is completely exposed.

Actually, I distinguish between them several times. However, he adds, incorrectly, that I fail to distinguish between arousal, pleasure, and aesthetic response in art. “This is the best book of its kind that I have come across for scientific rigor,” he says. Colin McGinn’s excellent review of my book The Tell-Tale Brain elegantly summarizes the main ideas in the book and makes good observations about the chapters on phantom limbs, body image, visual processing, synesthesia, mirror neurons, and language.

The tell tale brain by vs ramachandran