Consciousness

Dr. Antonio Damasio, a neuroscientist and director of the Brain and Creativity Institute at USC, is best known for his pioneering work on how the brain generates emotion and how emotion, in turn, helps people make decisions. His books "Descartes' Error" and "Looking for Spinoza" were international bestsellers. His latest work, "Self Comes to Mind," extends his theories and adds new facts to the ever-vexing question of consciousness — what it is, why it evolved and how it contributes to human culture.

When I knocked on a door in Torrance on Tuesday afternoon, I had just about given up on finding Fidel Lopez. Twenty years ago, at the corner of Florence and Normandie, the self-employed construction worker was dragged from his truck and viciously beaten just minutes after the same vengeance was served on Reginald Denny during the L.A. riots. Both assaults were captured on video that was played over and over, nauseating for the sheer brutality and the inhumane, triumphant swagger of the attackers.

Your story on Francis H.C. Crick and his work in yet another challenging area of science was thought-provoking ("Francis Crick's Quest," by Michael A. Hiltzik, Nov. 17). He has certainly contributed much to the field of science over the years. It's great that he still has so much passion for his work. Having worked in the field of science (microbiology and biochemistry), I'm cheering for him and his team. However, one consideration is that after all of the evidence has been established on consciousness, we still might be surprised to find a metaphysical or spiritual dimension interwoven into the physical aspect.

The nine young women of Girls' Generation sauntered onto the performance stage of "Late Show With David Letterman. " Flanked by a DJ and live drummer, the South Korean pop group wore lacy black mini-dresses and thigh-high leather boots, as if they were hosting a goth cocktail party. It was a rare American network television performance from a South Korean music group. The song they performed on the January show, a slinky bit of minor-key dance-pop called "The Boys," owed an obvious debt to Kelis' catcalling hit "Milkshake.

Christopher Larson, 15, the world's youngest artificial heart recipient, has regained consciousness but remained paralyzed on his right side Friday, hospital officials said.

With all due respect to Francis H.C. Crick ("Francis Crick's Quest," by Michael A. Hiltzik, Nov. 17), many of his ideas about consciousness suffer from the fact that he has chosen to study something that, in large part, lies outside his area of expertise. Consciousness, whatever it is, will not be understood primarily at the level of neurons. Any behavioral phenomenon, especially one that is so dependent on learning, must first be understood in terms of its function in the environment.

In the last 20 years, it's become more likely that a patient will survive an injury to the brain. But with better lifesaving techniques has come a pressing need to find out just how well the brain is functioning -- or if it is at all. Several teams of doctors and scientists are now trying to do that. Using brain-imaging techniques and behavioral tests, they're searching for more objective methods to determine a patient's level of consciousness. Doctors use a scale of brain responsiveness, says Mariano Sigman, director of the Integrative Neuroscience Laboratory at Buenos Aires University, where research into methods of testing conscious function are underway.

A growing movement of "activist" videogame designers is showing that not only can you make good games about problems like global warming, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the childhood obesity epidemic but that gaming itself can be a powerful medium for spreading awareness and getting people involved. These game makers are not offering the escapist trances so many of today's mega-budget games provide. On the contrary, they want to wake you up.

Dr. William P. Cheshire, a Mayo Clinic neurologist and bioethicist, stepped into Terri Schiavo's hospice room three weeks ago and was overcome by "the distinct sense of the presence of a living human being who seems at some level to be aware of some things around her." That was not the reaction he expected before his 90-minute examination of a patient who has spent the last 15 years in a persistent vegetative state, Cheshire wrote in an affidavit filed Wednesday in Florida state court.

I have something in mind--a thought so evanescent that it comes and goes in milliseconds. To capture it in the act, UCLA neuroscientist Mark S. Cohen has trained on my brain a 22-ton experimental imaging device, twice as powerful as--and 30,000 times faster than--any conventional medical imager. This nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) imager generates a magnetic field so forceful that, as it pulses and flexes around my head, the room shakes with a 100-decibel pile-driver roar.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — When Abdullah Hussain released his novel "Interlok" in 1971, the author could not have known the impact it would have on this Muslim-majority country. Few at the time read the Malay-language book, which portrays the interlocking lives of ethnic Malay, Chinese and Indian families in pre-independence British Malaya. But four decades later, the book became a sensation. It has galvanized the country's Indians — a mostly poor minority that is traditionally known for political passivity — after they objected to its portrayal of Indian characters.

Elizabeth Catlett, a sculptor and printmaker who was widely considered one of the most important African American artists of the 20th century despite having lived most of her life in Mexico, has died. She was 96. Catlett, whose sculptures became symbols of the civil rights movement, died Monday at her home in Cuernavaca, Mexico, said her eldest son, Francisco. Her imposing blend of art and social consciousness mirrored that of German painter Max Beckmann, Mexican muralist Diego Rivera and other artists of the mid-20th century who used art to critique power structures.

Coming off a rough year, Taco Bell is ditching its old "Think Outside the Bun" motto for a new slogan: Live Mas. The Irvine chain plans to make a big show out of the switch, starting with a television ad airing during NBA All-Star events this weekend. Mas is Spanish for "more," emphasizing food as an experience instead of fuel, according to the company. The Mexican-style restaurant chain's revamp is part of an ongoing effort to recapture customers. Last year, a lawsuit — eventually dropped — over the content of the chain's seasoned beef filling hurt sales.

In poll after poll, Americans say they don't like negative campaigning. Yet in the final week of the Florida primary, more than 90% of the ads broadcast were attack ads. That's not likely to change in the run-up to Super Tuesday. So why do candidates rely so heavily on a kind of advertising voters say they abhor? Because it works. To understand why, you have to consider what we know about how emotions work - and the different ways our conscious and unconscious minds and brains process "negativity" during elections.

Drivers passing through Vernon were confronted by an unusual sight on the afternoon of Dec. 29, 2008: a naked man, running down Grande Vista Avenue in the middle of traffic, babbling and punching cars. Soon after, the man was comatose after a confrontation with Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies and Vernon police. Three years later, Parrish Batchan remains at a rehabilitation center in Van Nuys in what the attorneys representing his family call a "minimally conscious" state.

The economy might be showing glimmers of hope, but don't expect one casualty of the recession - the company-sponsored holiday party - to bounce back any time soon. Under pressure to cut spending, many companies have cut out the catered lunches or off-campus bashes for employees and gone to potlucks instead - or nothing at all. Executive search firm Amprop Battalia Winston, which has been doing holiday office party surveys for more than two decades, found that in 2006, 95% of the companies it surveyed were planning an employee fete.

It requires only one UCLA defeat to bring out the egocentric vultures and amateur psychologists, who bray at Terry Donahue and pretend to understand a team's collective consciousness. RICHARD CHADWIN Porterville

Joe Rhett, South Carolina's senior forward who plays with a pacemaker, was reported in good condition after collapsing during the second half of Saturday night's game against Mississippi State. Rhett, who was taken to Richland Memorial Hospital as a precautionary measure, had a heart problem during the 1989-90 season and had a pacemaker implanted. He had played during the two seasons since the procedure without incident. Dr.

The Los Angeles Auto Show is the first major North American auto show of the new model year. It is known for automakers introducing hybrid, fuel-efficient and electric vehicles that grab the attention of California's eco-conscious drivers. It's also the place for big, splashy debuts of sports cars, the kind of vehicles that people fantasize driving on Pacific Coast Highway. This year's show, which opens to the public Friday, will have plenty of both. Audi plans the American debut of its S line of sports coupes.

As the gay Krewe of Armeinius prepares for its 40th anniversary Mardi Gras celebration, documentarian Tim Wolff, in his uniquely engaging "The Sons of Tennessee Williams," traces its history, making a film that, in turn, becomes a consciousness-raising revelation of the evolution of gay rights in New Orleans and by extension, the South. Krewes are social clubs chartered to participate in Mardi Gras parades and balls, and Wolff's "sons," middle-aged and elderly members of the Krewe, tell harsh stories of witnessing and experiencing intense harassment directed at gays in the '0s and '50s.