Towards the end of an article reporting how much unnoted context
alters our feelings and behaviors, a NYT article describes the
implication for how we think. It's another in a long series of
blows to the idea that we're fundamentally rational (emphases
mine)... ... an area called the ventral pallidum was
particularly active whenever the participants responded. “This
area is located in what used to be called the reptilian brain,
well below the conscious areas of the brain,” said the study’s
senior author, Chris Frith, a professor in neuropsychology at
University College London who wrote the book “Making Up The
Mind: How the Brain Creates our Mental World.” The results
suggest a “bottom-up” decision-making process, in which the
ventral pallidum is part of a circuit that first weighs the
reward and decides, then interacts with the higher-level,
conscious regions later, if at all, Dr. Frith said. Scientists
have spent years trying to pinpoint the exact neural regions
that support conscious awareness, so far in va