An Introduction to the Relationship between the Biological and the Cognitive Domains of the Policymaker: Brain, Mind, and Decision

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

1 Visiting Professor, Faculty of Law and Political Science, University of Tehran

2 Assistant Professor, Neuroscience Research Institute, Tehran University of Medical Sciences

Abstract

Discovering the relationship between the two essences of cognition the brain and mind are essential for understanding how humans make decisions. Of course, it is a difficult path related to analytical philosophy and cellular and molecular sciences. This article is trying to create a clear picture of these interdisciplinary relationships to understand better the policy maker's brain and mind in making the public policy agenda. The present study considers Kahenman's distinguishing human brain decisions into intuitive and logical systems. The allocation of 95% share to the intuitive system is a design bias and needs to be redefined and an optimal model based on interdisciplinary studies suggested in this article.  Scientific findings from different studies in the field of cognitive neuroscience confirmed that the decision process is influenced by determinants such as health and cellular efficiency of the decision maker's brain and their consciousness as well as the functionality of neurosensory receptors and their interconnectivity.  The decision can be formed under the influence of distorted external information from the environment or false internal information of the central nervous system and the resulting illusion. Receiving misinformation can be due to sensory receptors defect, brain injuries, pharmaceutical product or drug abuse. On the other hand, old age and brain damage can lead to diminished or heterogeneous brain neurons, dementia, and loss of identity memories. This type of brain tissue abnormality reduces the brain-mind decision-making capacity, causes cognitive biases, reduces the ability to make correct and timely decisions, or leads to abnormal decision-making. The scope of decision-making disorder can go beyond the individual sphere. In terms of the influence on the policymaker, social and national decisions and policies could be affected and as a result, causing misdirection of the ruling system and development in the country and the world. Testing this hypothesis will require conducting experimental cognitive neuroscience research on the target population of policymakers.

Keywords


1- افضلی, ع., & عبد خدائی, ز. (2014). غده صنوبری دکارت: مقری برای روح. فلسفه, 42(1), 19-38. doi:10.22059/jop.2014.51915
2- Alison, G. T. (1971). Essence of decision : explaining the Cuban missile crisis: Harper Collins.
3- Bertossa, R. C. (2011). Morphology and behaviour: functional links in development and evolution. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci, 366(1574), 2056-2068. doi:10.1098/rstb.2011.0035
4- Blakemore, S. J., & Choudhury, S. (2006). Development of the adolescent brain: implications for executive function and social cognition. J Child Psychol Psychiatry, 47(3-4), 296-312. doi:10.1111/j.1469-7610.2006.01611.x
5- Charlton, R. A., Barrick, T. R., Markus, H. S., & Morris, R. G. (2009). Theory of mind associations with other cognitive functions and brain imaging in normal aging. Psychol Aging, 24(2), 338-348. doi:10.1037/a0015225
6- Charlton, R. A., Barrick, T. R., McIntyre, D. J., Shen, Y., O'Sullivan, M., Howe, F. A., . . . Markus, H. S. (2006). White matter damage on diffusion tensor imaging correlates with age-related cognitive decline. Neurology, 66(2), 217-222. doi:10.1212/01.wnl.0000194256.15247.83
7- Crivellato, E., & Ribatti, D. (2007). Soul, mind, brain: Greek philosophy and the birth of neuroscience. Brain Res Bull, 71(4), 327-336. doi:10.1016/j.brainresbull.2006.09.020
8- Darlow, A. L., & Sloman, S. A. (2010). Two systems of reasoning: architecture and relation to emotion. Wiley Interdiscip Rev Cogn Sci, 1(3), 382-392. doi:10.1002/wcs.34
9- Descartes, R. (1965). Discourse on Method, Optics, Geometry, and Meteorology (P. J. Olscamp, Trans.). Indianapolis / Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company.
10- Fischer, D. B., Boes, A. D., Demertzi, A., Evrard, H. C., Laureys, S., Edlow, B. L., . . . Geerling, J. C. (2016). A human brain network derived from coma-causing brainstem lesions. Neurology, 87(23), 2427-2434. doi:10.1212/wnl.0000000000003404
11- George, J. (2000). Emotions and Leadership: The Role of Emotional Intelligence. Human Relations - HUM RELAT, 53, 1027-1055. doi:10.1177/0018726700538001
12- Gilmour, G., Schreiber, C., & Ewing, C. (2009). An examination of the relationship between low vision and Charles Bonnet syndrome. Can J Ophthalmol, 44(1), 49-52. doi:10.3129/i08-169
13- Goleman, D., Boyatzis, R., & McKee, A. (2009). Primal Leadership. IEEE Engineering Management Review, 37, 75-84. doi:10.1109/EMR.2009.5235507
14- Hasegawa, E., Mizumoto, N., Kobayashi, K., Dobata, S., Yoshimura, J., Watanabe, S., . . . Matsuura, K. (2017). Nature of collective decision-making by simple yes/no decision units. Sci Rep, 7(1), 14436. doi:10.1038/s41598-017-14626-z
15- Kahneman, D. (2013). Thinking, fast and slow (1st pbk. ed.). New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
16- Kenny, A. (1987). Descartes: A Study of His Philosophy: Garland.
17- Kraus, M. F., Susmaras, T., Caughlin, B. P., Walker, C. J., Sweeney, J. A., & Little, D. M. (2007). White matter integrity and cognition in chronic traumatic brain injury: a diffusion tensor imaging study. Brain, 130(Pt 10), 2508-2519. doi:10.1093/brain/awm216
18- Machamer, P., & Adams, M. P. (2014). Descartes on Intuition and Ideas. In B. S. Held & L. M. Osbeck (Eds.), Rational Intuition: Philosophical Roots, Scientific Investigations (pp. 75-89). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
19- Martie G. Haselton, D. N., Paul W. Andrews. (2015). The Evolution of Cognitive Bias. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
20- Martínez-Selva, J. M., Sánchez-Navarro, J. P., Bechara, A., & Román, F. (2006). [Brain mechanisms involved in decision-making]. Rev Neurol, 42(7), 411-418.
21- Mattson, M. P. (2019). An Evolutionary Perspective on Why Food Overconsumption Impairs Cognition. Trends Cogn Sci, 23(3), 200-212. doi:10.1016/j.tics.2019.01.003
22- Montgomery, S. H., Mundy, N. I., & Barton, R. A. (2016). Brain evolution and development: adaptation, allometry and constraint. Proc Biol Sci, 283(1838). doi:10.1098/rspb.2016.0433
23- Morewedge, C. K., & Kahneman, D. (2010). Associative processes in intuitive judgment. Trends Cogn Sci, 14(10), 435-440. doi:10.1016/j.tics.2010.07.004
24- Nazir, A. H., & Liljenström, H. (2015). A cortical network model of cognitive and emotional influences in human decision making. Biosystems, 136, 128-141. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biosystems.2015.07.004
25- Pandya, S. K. (2011). Understanding brain, mind and soul: contributions from neurology and neurosurgery. Mens Sana Monogr, 9(1), 129-149. doi:10.4103/0973-1229.77431
26- Sherwood, C. C., Subiaul, F., & Zawidzki, T. W. (2008). A natural history of the human mind: tracing evolutionary changes in brain and cognition. J Anat, 212(4), 426-454. doi:10.1111/j.1469-7580.2008.00868.x
27- Shiraishi, Y., Terao, T., Ibi, K., Nakamura, J., & Tawara, A. (2004). The rarity of Charles Bonnet syndrome. J Psychiatr Res, 38(2), 207-213. doi:10.1016/s0022-3956(03)00090-6
28- Szczepanski, S. M., & Knight, R. T. (2014). Insights into human behavior from lesions to the prefrontal cortex. Neuron, 83(5), 1002-1018. doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2014.08.011
29- Teunisse, R. J., Cruysberg, J. R., Verbeek, A., & Zitman, F. G. (1995). The Charles Bonnet syndrome: a large prospective study in The Netherlands. A study of the prevalence of the Charles Bonnet syndrome and associated factors in 500 patients attending the University Department of Ophthalmology at Nijmegen. Br J Psychiatry, 166(2), 254-257. doi:10.1192/bjp.166.2.254
30- Urban, E. (2018). On matters of mind and body: regarding Descartes. J Anal Psychol, 63(2), 228-240. doi:10.1111/1468-5922.12395
31- Valdés Hernández Mdel, C., Booth, T., Murray, C., Gow, A. J., Penke, L., Morris, Z., . . . Wardlaw, J. M. (2013). Brain white matter damage in aging and cognitive ability in youth and older age. Neurobiol Aging, 34(12), 2740-2747. doi:10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2013.05.032
32- Vallender, E. J., Mekel-Bobrov, N., & Lahn, B. T. (2008). Genetic basis of human brain evolution. Trends Neurosci, 31(12), 637-644. doi:10.1016/j.tins.2008.08.010
33- Wu, T., Dufford, A. J., Mackie, M.-A., Egan, L. J., & Fan, J. (2016). The Capacity of Cognitive Control Estimated from a Perceptual Decision Making Task. Scientific Reports, 6(1), 34025. doi:10.1038/srep34025
34- Zhong, Z. (2018). Brain Mechanism of Decision-making Behavior in Enterprise Employee Innovation Management. Neuroquantology, 16, 226-233.