  antonio damasio (; born february 25, 1944) is a portuguese-american neuroscientist/neurobiologist. he is a university professor and david dornsife professor of neuroscience at the university of southern california (where he also heads the brain and creativity institute), an adjunct professor at the salk institute,http://dornsife.usc.edu/cf/faculty-and-staff/faculty.cfm?pid=1008328&cfid=5122787&cftoken=50657460 and the author of several books describing his scientific thinking. "as a leading neuroscientist, damasio has dared to speculate on neurobiological data, and has offered a theory about the relationship between human emotions, human rationality, and the underlying biology."ole kuhl, musical semantics (2008) p. 122 prior to joining usc in 2005, damasio was m.w. van allen professor and head of neurology at the university of iowa hospitals and clinics. == life and work ==  damasio studied medicine at the university of lisbon medical school, where he also did his neurological residency and completed his doctorate. for part of his studies he researched behavioral neurology under the supervision of the norman geschwind of the aphasia research center in boston. damasio's main field is neurobiology, especially neural systems which subserve emotion, decision-making, memory, language and consciousness. damasio believes that emotions play a critical role in high-level cognitionâan idea counter to dominant 20th-century views in psychology, neuroscience and philosophy.  thumb|left|200px|damasio in 2008. damasio formulated the [[somatic marker hy
1944_births Cognitive_neuroscientists Consciousness_researchers_and_theorists Fellows_of_the_American_Academy_of_Arts_and_Sciences Living_people Members_of_the_European_Academy_of_Sciences_and_Arts Neuropsychologists Pessoa_Prize_winners Portuguese_neuroscientists Portuguese_scientists Science_writers University_of_Iowa_faculty University_of_Southern_California_faculty