Self-consciousness is neuronally associated with the brain's default mode network as its &quo... more Self-consciousness is neuronally associated with the brain's default mode network as its "neuronal baseline" while, psychologically the self is characterized by different thought modes and dynamics. We here raise the question whether they reflect the "psychological baseline" of the self. We investigate the psychological relationship of the self with thought modes (rumination, reflection) and mind-wandering dynamics (spontaneous, deliberate), as well as with depressive symptomatology. Our findings show a relationship between self-consciousness and i) mind-wandering dynamics, and ii) thought functional modes, in their respective forms. At the same time, self-consciousness is more related to spontaneous mind-wandering than deliberate and to rumination than reflection. Furthermore, iii) rumination acts as a mediator between self-consciousness and spontaneous mind-wandering dynamics; and iv) the relationship between high levels of self-consciousness and depressive symptoms is mediated by ruminative modes and spontaneous mind-wandering dynamics. Together, these findings support the view of the self as "psychological baseline".
Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is characterized by social anxiety/fear, self-attention, and intero... more Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is characterized by social anxiety/fear, self-attention, and interoception. Functional magnetic resonance imaging studies demonstrate increased activity during symptom-sensitive tasks in regions of the default-mode network (DMN), amygdala (AMG), and salience network (SN). What is the source of this task-unspecific symptom-sensitive hyperactivity in DMN? We address this question by probing SAD resting state (rs) changes in DMN including their relation to other regions as possible source of task-unspecific hyperactivity in the same regions. Our findings show the following: (1) rs-hypoconnectivity within-DMN regions; (2) rs-hyperconnectivity between DMN and AMG/SN; (3) task-evoked hyperactivity in the abnormal rs-regions of DMN and AMG/SN during different symptom-sensitive tasks; (4) negative relationship of rest and task changes in especially anterior DMN regions as their rs-hypoconnectivity is accompanied by task-unspecific hyperactivity; (5) abnormal top-down/bottom-up modulation between anterior DMN regions and AMG during rest and task. Findings demonstrate that rs-hypoconnectivity among DMN regions is negatively related to task-unspecific hyperactivity in DMN and AMG/SN. We propose a model of "Topography of the Anxious Self" in SAD (TAS-SAD). Abnormal DMN-AMG/SN topography during rest, as trait feature of an "unstable social self", is abnormally aggravated during SAD-sensitive situations resulting in task-related hyperactivity in the same regions with an "anxious self" as state feature.
The current international crisis situation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic is having a strong psy... more The current international crisis situation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic is having a strong psychological impact on our subjectivities. We are constantly threatened by the danger of i) being infected, ii) infecting other people, and (iii) by the loss of social relation. Departing from these premises, we here aim to investigate the psychological and neurodynamics of this complex phenomenon. First, we discuss about recent psychological and neuronal findings on fear and its disorders, related to an unbalanced intero-exteroceptive processing and emotional regulation. Secondly we move to the psychological and neuronal dynamics of self and others characterized by a temporo-spatial alignment with the world. Due to the neural overlap of emotion and self and the deep-reaching neuro-ecological layers of self, emotional feelings like fear and anxiety cannot be detached and dissociated from the world; they signify the world-brain relation, and, more specifically, our self-other relation. The deepest neuro-ecological and neuro-social layers of self are threatened by the loss of subjectivity, which is manifest in our loss of body and thus the fear of dying, and the loss of intersubjectivity that surfaces in our fear of infecting others, which reflect the intimate anchorage of the self with the world. In our opinion the pandemic of COVID-19 deeply affect our sense of self and its spatio-temporal neuronal dynamics providing the prerequisites for the manifestation of fear and existential anxiety, thus disrupting the brain-world relation with significant repercussions on our psyche and on our daily lives.
Il concetto di Sé sta assumendo un interesse sempre maggiore nelle Neuroscienze. Parecchi autori ... more Il concetto di Sé sta assumendo un interesse sempre maggiore nelle Neuroscienze. Parecchi autori hanno approfondito i correlati neurologici del Sé ed affermato che il Sé potrebbe svolgere un ruolo central nell'architettura neurale del cervello (Panksepp, 1998; Northoff e Bermpohl, 2004; Northoff e Panksepp, 2008); ad esempio, nel porre a confronto gli stimoli Sé-specifici e non Sé-specifici, essi hanno scoperto le modificazioni principali nella struttura corticale mediana (CMS) e in quella sub-corticale mediana (SCMS). Il concetto di Sé sembra costituire una predisposizione alle differenze individuali di comportamenti, cognizioni, emozioni, ecc., ossia del profilo di personalità del singolo. La posizione teorica secondo la quale la relazionalità interpersonale e le caratteristiche della definizione del Sé sono determinanti nei disturbi di personalità e nello sviluppo della personalità è stata fortemente influenzata dalla Teoria dell'Attaccamento (Fonagy & Luyten, 2009; Fonagy et al., 2010; Levy, 2005) e dalle formulazioni dell'approccio contemporaneo interpersonalista (Pincus, 2005). Teoria e ricerca in questo campo hanno affermato il ruolo delle relazioni primarie di accudimento nello sviluppo delle rappresentazioni di sé e degli altri, sia nello sviluppo normale sia in quello non lineare (Blatt, Auerbach e Levy, 1997). Questa concettualizzazione ha un alto grado di concordanza con più formulazioni psicoanalitiche che evidenziano come esperienze di accudimento relativamente soddisfacenti siano potenzialmente facilitanti lo sviluppo di un senso del Sé differenziato e coeso, la capacità di una relazionalità interpersonale progressivamente sempre più matura e la capacità di intimità (Blatt & Blass, 1996; Kernberg, 1975; Kohut, 1971). Intersoggettività e concetto di Sé sembrano strettamente in relazione tra loro. Noi ci volgiamo agli altri come a simili a noi, cioè come dotati di esperienze mentali e corporee (sentimenti, sensazioni simili alle nostre e diverse da quelle del mondo inanimate). Stiamo andando verso un nuovo modello, che può sviluppare un ponte tra le neuroscienze, le formulazioni della Psicoanalisi e la prassi clinica. Il concetto neuroscientifico relazional-costruttivistico di Sé e lo studio della Resting State Activity nei test di laboratorio possono illuminare l'importanza dell'inter-soggettività e della risonanza intenzionale (Gallese, Eagle, Migone, 2007) tra soggetti. Il nostro intento è di proporre le nostre scoperte empiriche sulla relazione tra Resting State Activity e prove sperimentali basate sul tatto (intenzione di toccare la mano umana animata versus la mano inanimata di un manichino), assodato che il tatto gode di uno statuto privilegiato nel rendere possibile l'attribuzione sociale di una personalità viva agli altri. I nostri risultati indicano che il nostro cervello, durante lo stato di riposo, sembra essere inevitabilmente relazionale, di default: esso è dotato dell'autocoscienza necessaria alla relazione con gli altri soggetti ma non con gli oggetti inanimati. Specificatamente, queste scoperte riguardano la corteccia somato-sensoriale, un'area-chiave del cervello implicata nell'empatia e nella sensazione tattile.
The goal of this study was to test in a clinical sample the interrater reliability and convergent... more The goal of this study was to test in a clinical sample the interrater reliability and convergent validity of the Differentiation-Relatedness Scale (D-RS), a measure that evaluates mental representations based on open-ended descriptions of self and significant others. The study also investigated the ability of the D-RS to predict personality disorders (PDs) from Section II of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5), and the dysfunctional trait domains presented in the Alternative DSM-5 Model for Personality Disorders Criterion B in Section III of the DSM-5. We also evaluated if the D-RS predicts observed Section II PDs over and above Criterion B of the Alternative DSM-5 Model for Personality Disorders. We found that the interrater reliability of the D-RS was good on the basis of the mean scores of 6 independent raters and that it showed moderate convergent validity. Results of dominance analyses indicated that the D-RS is a significant predictor of Section II borderline PD and of the overall number of DSM-5 PDs. When we considered the Section III Criterion B for PDs, the D-RS was not able to predict any of the Personality Inventory for DSM-5 domains, suggesting that the D-RS may be more related to personality functioning behind mental representations than to maladaptive personality traits. Finally, results of hierarchical regression analyses suggested that the D-RS produced a significant but modest increase in the prediction of borderline PD traits and the overall number of PDs traits even when the effect of the Personality Inventory for DSM-5 domains were controlled for.
Introduction: Depression can be characterized by rumination that is featured by spontaneity and p... more Introduction: Depression can be characterized by rumination that is featured by spontaneity and perseveration of internally oriented thoughts. At the same time, depressed subjects complain about abnormal slowness and lack of power/energy in their thoughts, suggesting abnormal “thought dynamics.” The relationship between rumination and thought dynamics in depression remains unclear, though. Method: We investigated thought dynamics and rumination in healthy control, major depressive disorder (MDD), and depressed bipolar disorder (BD) subjects. The dynamics in the spontaneous shift between internally and externally oriented thoughts were measured by a novel method of continuous experience sampling whose time series was subjected to power and frequency analyses. Subjects filled out the Beck Depression Inventory-II and Ruminative Response Scale questionnaires to evaluate current depressive symptoms and ruminative responses to negative affect. The methods used to analyze data included χ2, Pearson correlation, ANOVA, and partial correlation. Results: Our main findings are: (i) increased number and longer duration of internally oriented thought contents in MDD and BD; (ii) reduced thought dynamics with slower frequency (calculated in Hz) and decreased power (power spectral density) in shifting between internally and externally oriented thoughts, especially in MDD and, less strongly, in BD subjects; and (iii) power spectral density as a dimension of thought dynamics is related to brooding rumination with depression severity explaining high degrees of their variance. Conclusion: Our results show slow frequency and low power in the internal-external thought dynamic of acute MDD and depressed BD. Together with its close relation to depression severity and rumination, our findings highlight the key importance of abnormal dynamics on the cognitive level of depression.
There is an increasing interest in how ongoing spontaneous brain activity and personality provide... more There is an increasing interest in how ongoing spontaneous brain activity and personality provide a predisposition for the processing of environmental demands. It further has been suggested that the brain has an inherent sensitivity to the social environment. Here we tested in healthy volunteers if spontaneous brain activity contributes to a predisposition for social behavior and how this is modulated by narcissistic personality features associated with poor interpersonal functioning. Functional magnetic resonance imaging included a resting state and an experimental paradigm focusing on the anticipation of actively touching an animate (human hand) versus an inanimate target (mannequin hand). The experimental task induced a significant modulation of neural activity in left postcentral gyrus (PostCG), right culmen and, co-varying with narcissistic features, in right anterior insula (AI). Neural activity in anticipation of the animate target significantly correlated with spontaneous activity during the resting state indexed by the Power Law Exponent (PLE) in PostCG and AI. Finally, the correlation between spontaneous and task-induced activity in AI was mediated by narcissistic features. These findings provide novel evidence for a relationship between intrinsic brain activity and social behavior and show how personality could contribute to individual differences in our predisposition to approach the animate world.
Regarding traumatogenic disturbances, there were many changes and new developments during last ye... more Regarding traumatogenic disturbances, there were many changes and new developments during last years both in the psychodynamic understanding and in neuroscience. DSM-5 made major changes on PTSD but didn't recognise the diagnosis of complex PTSD, which is now established in the PDM-2, and it is accepted by the task force for the expected ICD-11. In this work our aim is to shed a novel light on the neuropsychodynamic understanding of trauma and its manifestations both at a psychological and at a neuroscientific level. The first distinction to be made is that between the so-called man-made trauma, i.e. trauma due to the violence of another human being, or even within a relationship, and traumatisation resulting from a natural catastrophe (earthquake, typhoon, etc.). We need also to distinguish different levels of interpersonal traumatisations: (1) severe lack of attunement between child and caregiver (early relational trauma) from severe neglect, maltreatment, abuse and incest, resulting in emotional dysregulation, distortion of reality and destructiveness of the self or aggressiveness against the other; (2) maltreatment and abuse and identification with the aggressor, where the two sides, victim and aggressor, remain embedded within the psyche and intertwined within the personality, repeating a chain of violence; and (3) massive trauma and the consequence for traumatic generations. The effects of trauma of human agency on the brain will be discussed.
The sense of self has always been a topic of high interest in both psychoanalysis and most recent... more The sense of self has always been a topic of high interest in both psychoanalysis and most recently in neuroscience. Nowadays, there is an agreement in psychoanalysis that the self emerges from the relationship with the other (e.g., the caregiver) in terms of his/her capacity to attune, regulate, and synchronize with the emergent self of the infant. The outcome of this relational/intersubjective synchronization is the development of the sense of self and its regulatory processes both in dynamic psychology and neuroscience. In this work, we propose that synchrony is a fundamental biobehavioral factor in these dialectical processes between self and others which shapes the brain-body-mind system of the individuals, including their sense of self. Recently in neuroscience, it has been proposed by the research group around Northo that the self is constituted by a brain-based nested hierarchical three-layer structure, including interoceptive, proprio-exteroceptive, and mental layers of self. This may be disrupted, though, when traumatic experiences occur. Following the three levels of trauma theorized by Mucci, we here suggest how di erent levels of traumatic experiences might have an enduring e ect in yielding a trauma-based topographic and dynamic reorganization of the nested model of self featured by dissociation. In conclusion, we propose that di erent levels and degrees of traumatic experience are related to corresponding disruptions in the topography and dynamic of the brain-based three-layer hierarchical structure of the self.
What is the role of the brain's ongoing activity for cognition? The predominant perspectives asso... more What is the role of the brain's ongoing activity for cognition? The predominant perspectives associate ongoing brain activity with resting state, the default-mode network (DMN), and internally-oriented mentation. This triad is often contrasted with task states, non-DMN brain networks, and externally-oriented mentation, together comprising a 'dual model' of brain and cognition. In opposition to this duality, however, we propose that ongoing brain activity serves as a neuronal baseline; this builds upon Raichle's original search for the default-mode of brain function that extended beyond the canonical default mode brain regions. That entails what we refer to as the 'baseline model'. Akin to an internal biological clock for the rest of the organism, the ongoing brain activity may serve as an internal point of reference or standard by providing a shared neural code for the brain's rest as well as task states including their associated cognition. Such shared neural code is manifest in the spatiotemporal organisation of the brain's ongoing activity including its global signal topography and dynamics like intrinsic neural timescales. We conclude that recent empirical evidence supports a baseline model over the dual model; the ongoing activity provides a global shared neural code that allows integrating the brain's rest and task states, its DMN and non-DMN, as well as internally-and externally-oriented cognition.
This is a PDF file of an article that has undergone enhancements after acceptance, such as the ad... more This is a PDF file of an article that has undergone enhancements after acceptance, such as the addition of a cover page and metadata, and formatting for readability, but it is not yet the definitive version of record. This version will undergo additional copyediting, typesetting and review before it is published in its final form, but we are providing this version to give early visibility of the article. Please note that, during the production process, errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain.
Major depressive disorder (MDD) is characterized by reduced dynamic with abnormal slowness in emo... more Major depressive disorder (MDD) is characterized by reduced dynamic with abnormal slowness in emotion, thought/cognition, and movements. Is the reduced dynamic also manifest in visual perception and neural activity of occipital cortex? Various findings show reduced activity in occipital cortex including in subareas like human MT complex (hMT+) cortex in MDD; its meaning for the dynamics of visual perception in MDD remains yet unclear, though. Combining novel data in three independents acute MDD samples (totally, 109 MDD, 113 HC), we characterize hMT+ in MDD in a dynamic way on perceptual (visual motion paradigm) and neural (rest/task fMRI) levels. Our main findings in MDD are: (i) reduced duration threshold difference for discriminating fast and slow-speed stimuli, leading to (ii) the perception of a longer distance for faster-speed moving gratings; (iii) reduced global representation of the brain’s spontaneous activity in hMT+ in especially faster infra slow frequencies with reverb...
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative... more This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY
Self-consciousness is neuronally associated with the brain's default mode network as its &quo... more Self-consciousness is neuronally associated with the brain's default mode network as its "neuronal baseline" while, psychologically the self is characterized by different thought modes and dynamics. We here raise the question whether they reflect the "psychological baseline" of the self. We investigate the psychological relationship of the self with thought modes (rumination, reflection) and mind-wandering dynamics (spontaneous, deliberate), as well as with depressive symptomatology. Our findings show a relationship between self-consciousness and i) mind-wandering dynamics, and ii) thought functional modes, in their respective forms. At the same time, self-consciousness is more related to spontaneous mind-wandering than deliberate and to rumination than reflection. Furthermore, iii) rumination acts as a mediator between self-consciousness and spontaneous mind-wandering dynamics; and iv) the relationship between high levels of self-consciousness and depressive symptoms is mediated by ruminative modes and spontaneous mind-wandering dynamics. Together, these findings support the view of the self as "psychological baseline".
Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is characterized by social anxiety/fear, self-attention, and intero... more Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is characterized by social anxiety/fear, self-attention, and interoception. Functional magnetic resonance imaging studies demonstrate increased activity during symptom-sensitive tasks in regions of the default-mode network (DMN), amygdala (AMG), and salience network (SN). What is the source of this task-unspecific symptom-sensitive hyperactivity in DMN? We address this question by probing SAD resting state (rs) changes in DMN including their relation to other regions as possible source of task-unspecific hyperactivity in the same regions. Our findings show the following: (1) rs-hypoconnectivity within-DMN regions; (2) rs-hyperconnectivity between DMN and AMG/SN; (3) task-evoked hyperactivity in the abnormal rs-regions of DMN and AMG/SN during different symptom-sensitive tasks; (4) negative relationship of rest and task changes in especially anterior DMN regions as their rs-hypoconnectivity is accompanied by task-unspecific hyperactivity; (5) abnormal top-down/bottom-up modulation between anterior DMN regions and AMG during rest and task. Findings demonstrate that rs-hypoconnectivity among DMN regions is negatively related to task-unspecific hyperactivity in DMN and AMG/SN. We propose a model of "Topography of the Anxious Self" in SAD (TAS-SAD). Abnormal DMN-AMG/SN topography during rest, as trait feature of an "unstable social self", is abnormally aggravated during SAD-sensitive situations resulting in task-related hyperactivity in the same regions with an "anxious self" as state feature.
The current international crisis situation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic is having a strong psy... more The current international crisis situation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic is having a strong psychological impact on our subjectivities. We are constantly threatened by the danger of i) being infected, ii) infecting other people, and (iii) by the loss of social relation. Departing from these premises, we here aim to investigate the psychological and neurodynamics of this complex phenomenon. First, we discuss about recent psychological and neuronal findings on fear and its disorders, related to an unbalanced intero-exteroceptive processing and emotional regulation. Secondly we move to the psychological and neuronal dynamics of self and others characterized by a temporo-spatial alignment with the world. Due to the neural overlap of emotion and self and the deep-reaching neuro-ecological layers of self, emotional feelings like fear and anxiety cannot be detached and dissociated from the world; they signify the world-brain relation, and, more specifically, our self-other relation. The deepest neuro-ecological and neuro-social layers of self are threatened by the loss of subjectivity, which is manifest in our loss of body and thus the fear of dying, and the loss of intersubjectivity that surfaces in our fear of infecting others, which reflect the intimate anchorage of the self with the world. In our opinion the pandemic of COVID-19 deeply affect our sense of self and its spatio-temporal neuronal dynamics providing the prerequisites for the manifestation of fear and existential anxiety, thus disrupting the brain-world relation with significant repercussions on our psyche and on our daily lives.
Il concetto di Sé sta assumendo un interesse sempre maggiore nelle Neuroscienze. Parecchi autori ... more Il concetto di Sé sta assumendo un interesse sempre maggiore nelle Neuroscienze. Parecchi autori hanno approfondito i correlati neurologici del Sé ed affermato che il Sé potrebbe svolgere un ruolo central nell'architettura neurale del cervello (Panksepp, 1998; Northoff e Bermpohl, 2004; Northoff e Panksepp, 2008); ad esempio, nel porre a confronto gli stimoli Sé-specifici e non Sé-specifici, essi hanno scoperto le modificazioni principali nella struttura corticale mediana (CMS) e in quella sub-corticale mediana (SCMS). Il concetto di Sé sembra costituire una predisposizione alle differenze individuali di comportamenti, cognizioni, emozioni, ecc., ossia del profilo di personalità del singolo. La posizione teorica secondo la quale la relazionalità interpersonale e le caratteristiche della definizione del Sé sono determinanti nei disturbi di personalità e nello sviluppo della personalità è stata fortemente influenzata dalla Teoria dell'Attaccamento (Fonagy & Luyten, 2009; Fonagy et al., 2010; Levy, 2005) e dalle formulazioni dell'approccio contemporaneo interpersonalista (Pincus, 2005). Teoria e ricerca in questo campo hanno affermato il ruolo delle relazioni primarie di accudimento nello sviluppo delle rappresentazioni di sé e degli altri, sia nello sviluppo normale sia in quello non lineare (Blatt, Auerbach e Levy, 1997). Questa concettualizzazione ha un alto grado di concordanza con più formulazioni psicoanalitiche che evidenziano come esperienze di accudimento relativamente soddisfacenti siano potenzialmente facilitanti lo sviluppo di un senso del Sé differenziato e coeso, la capacità di una relazionalità interpersonale progressivamente sempre più matura e la capacità di intimità (Blatt & Blass, 1996; Kernberg, 1975; Kohut, 1971). Intersoggettività e concetto di Sé sembrano strettamente in relazione tra loro. Noi ci volgiamo agli altri come a simili a noi, cioè come dotati di esperienze mentali e corporee (sentimenti, sensazioni simili alle nostre e diverse da quelle del mondo inanimate). Stiamo andando verso un nuovo modello, che può sviluppare un ponte tra le neuroscienze, le formulazioni della Psicoanalisi e la prassi clinica. Il concetto neuroscientifico relazional-costruttivistico di Sé e lo studio della Resting State Activity nei test di laboratorio possono illuminare l'importanza dell'inter-soggettività e della risonanza intenzionale (Gallese, Eagle, Migone, 2007) tra soggetti. Il nostro intento è di proporre le nostre scoperte empiriche sulla relazione tra Resting State Activity e prove sperimentali basate sul tatto (intenzione di toccare la mano umana animata versus la mano inanimata di un manichino), assodato che il tatto gode di uno statuto privilegiato nel rendere possibile l'attribuzione sociale di una personalità viva agli altri. I nostri risultati indicano che il nostro cervello, durante lo stato di riposo, sembra essere inevitabilmente relazionale, di default: esso è dotato dell'autocoscienza necessaria alla relazione con gli altri soggetti ma non con gli oggetti inanimati. Specificatamente, queste scoperte riguardano la corteccia somato-sensoriale, un'area-chiave del cervello implicata nell'empatia e nella sensazione tattile.
The goal of this study was to test in a clinical sample the interrater reliability and convergent... more The goal of this study was to test in a clinical sample the interrater reliability and convergent validity of the Differentiation-Relatedness Scale (D-RS), a measure that evaluates mental representations based on open-ended descriptions of self and significant others. The study also investigated the ability of the D-RS to predict personality disorders (PDs) from Section II of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5), and the dysfunctional trait domains presented in the Alternative DSM-5 Model for Personality Disorders Criterion B in Section III of the DSM-5. We also evaluated if the D-RS predicts observed Section II PDs over and above Criterion B of the Alternative DSM-5 Model for Personality Disorders. We found that the interrater reliability of the D-RS was good on the basis of the mean scores of 6 independent raters and that it showed moderate convergent validity. Results of dominance analyses indicated that the D-RS is a significant predictor of Section II borderline PD and of the overall number of DSM-5 PDs. When we considered the Section III Criterion B for PDs, the D-RS was not able to predict any of the Personality Inventory for DSM-5 domains, suggesting that the D-RS may be more related to personality functioning behind mental representations than to maladaptive personality traits. Finally, results of hierarchical regression analyses suggested that the D-RS produced a significant but modest increase in the prediction of borderline PD traits and the overall number of PDs traits even when the effect of the Personality Inventory for DSM-5 domains were controlled for.
Introduction: Depression can be characterized by rumination that is featured by spontaneity and p... more Introduction: Depression can be characterized by rumination that is featured by spontaneity and perseveration of internally oriented thoughts. At the same time, depressed subjects complain about abnormal slowness and lack of power/energy in their thoughts, suggesting abnormal “thought dynamics.” The relationship between rumination and thought dynamics in depression remains unclear, though. Method: We investigated thought dynamics and rumination in healthy control, major depressive disorder (MDD), and depressed bipolar disorder (BD) subjects. The dynamics in the spontaneous shift between internally and externally oriented thoughts were measured by a novel method of continuous experience sampling whose time series was subjected to power and frequency analyses. Subjects filled out the Beck Depression Inventory-II and Ruminative Response Scale questionnaires to evaluate current depressive symptoms and ruminative responses to negative affect. The methods used to analyze data included χ2, Pearson correlation, ANOVA, and partial correlation. Results: Our main findings are: (i) increased number and longer duration of internally oriented thought contents in MDD and BD; (ii) reduced thought dynamics with slower frequency (calculated in Hz) and decreased power (power spectral density) in shifting between internally and externally oriented thoughts, especially in MDD and, less strongly, in BD subjects; and (iii) power spectral density as a dimension of thought dynamics is related to brooding rumination with depression severity explaining high degrees of their variance. Conclusion: Our results show slow frequency and low power in the internal-external thought dynamic of acute MDD and depressed BD. Together with its close relation to depression severity and rumination, our findings highlight the key importance of abnormal dynamics on the cognitive level of depression.
There is an increasing interest in how ongoing spontaneous brain activity and personality provide... more There is an increasing interest in how ongoing spontaneous brain activity and personality provide a predisposition for the processing of environmental demands. It further has been suggested that the brain has an inherent sensitivity to the social environment. Here we tested in healthy volunteers if spontaneous brain activity contributes to a predisposition for social behavior and how this is modulated by narcissistic personality features associated with poor interpersonal functioning. Functional magnetic resonance imaging included a resting state and an experimental paradigm focusing on the anticipation of actively touching an animate (human hand) versus an inanimate target (mannequin hand). The experimental task induced a significant modulation of neural activity in left postcentral gyrus (PostCG), right culmen and, co-varying with narcissistic features, in right anterior insula (AI). Neural activity in anticipation of the animate target significantly correlated with spontaneous activity during the resting state indexed by the Power Law Exponent (PLE) in PostCG and AI. Finally, the correlation between spontaneous and task-induced activity in AI was mediated by narcissistic features. These findings provide novel evidence for a relationship between intrinsic brain activity and social behavior and show how personality could contribute to individual differences in our predisposition to approach the animate world.
Regarding traumatogenic disturbances, there were many changes and new developments during last ye... more Regarding traumatogenic disturbances, there were many changes and new developments during last years both in the psychodynamic understanding and in neuroscience. DSM-5 made major changes on PTSD but didn't recognise the diagnosis of complex PTSD, which is now established in the PDM-2, and it is accepted by the task force for the expected ICD-11. In this work our aim is to shed a novel light on the neuropsychodynamic understanding of trauma and its manifestations both at a psychological and at a neuroscientific level. The first distinction to be made is that between the so-called man-made trauma, i.e. trauma due to the violence of another human being, or even within a relationship, and traumatisation resulting from a natural catastrophe (earthquake, typhoon, etc.). We need also to distinguish different levels of interpersonal traumatisations: (1) severe lack of attunement between child and caregiver (early relational trauma) from severe neglect, maltreatment, abuse and incest, resulting in emotional dysregulation, distortion of reality and destructiveness of the self or aggressiveness against the other; (2) maltreatment and abuse and identification with the aggressor, where the two sides, victim and aggressor, remain embedded within the psyche and intertwined within the personality, repeating a chain of violence; and (3) massive trauma and the consequence for traumatic generations. The effects of trauma of human agency on the brain will be discussed.
The sense of self has always been a topic of high interest in both psychoanalysis and most recent... more The sense of self has always been a topic of high interest in both psychoanalysis and most recently in neuroscience. Nowadays, there is an agreement in psychoanalysis that the self emerges from the relationship with the other (e.g., the caregiver) in terms of his/her capacity to attune, regulate, and synchronize with the emergent self of the infant. The outcome of this relational/intersubjective synchronization is the development of the sense of self and its regulatory processes both in dynamic psychology and neuroscience. In this work, we propose that synchrony is a fundamental biobehavioral factor in these dialectical processes between self and others which shapes the brain-body-mind system of the individuals, including their sense of self. Recently in neuroscience, it has been proposed by the research group around Northo that the self is constituted by a brain-based nested hierarchical three-layer structure, including interoceptive, proprio-exteroceptive, and mental layers of self. This may be disrupted, though, when traumatic experiences occur. Following the three levels of trauma theorized by Mucci, we here suggest how di erent levels of traumatic experiences might have an enduring e ect in yielding a trauma-based topographic and dynamic reorganization of the nested model of self featured by dissociation. In conclusion, we propose that di erent levels and degrees of traumatic experience are related to corresponding disruptions in the topography and dynamic of the brain-based three-layer hierarchical structure of the self.
What is the role of the brain's ongoing activity for cognition? The predominant perspectives asso... more What is the role of the brain's ongoing activity for cognition? The predominant perspectives associate ongoing brain activity with resting state, the default-mode network (DMN), and internally-oriented mentation. This triad is often contrasted with task states, non-DMN brain networks, and externally-oriented mentation, together comprising a 'dual model' of brain and cognition. In opposition to this duality, however, we propose that ongoing brain activity serves as a neuronal baseline; this builds upon Raichle's original search for the default-mode of brain function that extended beyond the canonical default mode brain regions. That entails what we refer to as the 'baseline model'. Akin to an internal biological clock for the rest of the organism, the ongoing brain activity may serve as an internal point of reference or standard by providing a shared neural code for the brain's rest as well as task states including their associated cognition. Such shared neural code is manifest in the spatiotemporal organisation of the brain's ongoing activity including its global signal topography and dynamics like intrinsic neural timescales. We conclude that recent empirical evidence supports a baseline model over the dual model; the ongoing activity provides a global shared neural code that allows integrating the brain's rest and task states, its DMN and non-DMN, as well as internally-and externally-oriented cognition.
This is a PDF file of an article that has undergone enhancements after acceptance, such as the ad... more This is a PDF file of an article that has undergone enhancements after acceptance, such as the addition of a cover page and metadata, and formatting for readability, but it is not yet the definitive version of record. This version will undergo additional copyediting, typesetting and review before it is published in its final form, but we are providing this version to give early visibility of the article. Please note that, during the production process, errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain.
Major depressive disorder (MDD) is characterized by reduced dynamic with abnormal slowness in emo... more Major depressive disorder (MDD) is characterized by reduced dynamic with abnormal slowness in emotion, thought/cognition, and movements. Is the reduced dynamic also manifest in visual perception and neural activity of occipital cortex? Various findings show reduced activity in occipital cortex including in subareas like human MT complex (hMT+) cortex in MDD; its meaning for the dynamics of visual perception in MDD remains yet unclear, though. Combining novel data in three independents acute MDD samples (totally, 109 MDD, 113 HC), we characterize hMT+ in MDD in a dynamic way on perceptual (visual motion paradigm) and neural (rest/task fMRI) levels. Our main findings in MDD are: (i) reduced duration threshold difference for discriminating fast and slow-speed stimuli, leading to (ii) the perception of a longer distance for faster-speed moving gratings; (iii) reduced global representation of the brain’s spontaneous activity in hMT+ in especially faster infra slow frequencies with reverb...
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative... more This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY
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