December 2016
The desires and aspirations of the human heart are endless. It is foolish to attribute them all to a single brain system. But they all come to a standstill if certain brain systems, such as the dopamine (DA) circuits arising from midbrain nuclei, are destroyed. Such was the tragedy that overtook Leonard L. in his childhood, and it was not until he was a grown man that he was able to partake again of worldly delights. What allowed him to achieve the feelings of success described by Sacks was L-DOPA, the precursor of DA. This medicine had already alleviated the psychomotor problems of ordinary parkinsonian patients, who had weaker forms of deterioration in their ascending DA systems. In such individuals L-DOPA can dramatically alleviate the inability to initiate movements, allowing them to enjoy everyday pleasures. Now we know that ascending DA tracts lie at the heart of powerful, affectively valenced neural systems that allow people and animals to operate smoothly and efficiently in all of their day-to-day pursuits.
Fifth, at the other end of the spectrum is the need for psychobiologists to include more data from human experience in our inquiry. In the attempt to be scientific in the past, we may have confused behaviorism with materialism and the avoidance of philosophical dualism. To the psychobiologist, subjective human experience comes from the physical brain, and is as much a function to be measured as overt behavior. The measurement may be difficult, but that does not mean that the function of reportable experience should be ruled out. Therefore, we have included human subjective reports, given on an analogue rating scale or in a magnitude estimation, along with accompanying behavioral data on the same subjects. Taken together with animal data, the human data add a new dimension to the inquiry.
Fifth, at the other end of the spectrum is the need for psychobiologists to include more data from human experience in our inquiry. In the attempt to be scientific in the past, we may have confused behaviorism with materialism and the avoidance of philosophical dualism. To the psychobiologist, subjective human experience comes from the physical brain, and is as much a function to be measured as overt behavior. The measurement may be difficult, but that does not mean that the function of reportable experience should be ruled out. Therefore, we have included human subjective reports, given on an analogue rating scale or in a magnitude estimation, along with accompanying behavioral data on the same subjects. Taken together with animal data, the human data add a new dimension to the inquiry.