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PubMed1993

Mental illness and the mind-brain problem: delusion, belief and Searle's theory of intentionality.

Until recently there has been little contact between the mind-brain debate in philosophy and the debate in psychiatry about the nature of mental illness. In this paper some of the analogies and disanalogies between the two debates are explored. It is noted in particular that the emphasis in modern philosophy of mind on the importance of the concept of action has been matched by a recent shift in the debate about mental illness from analyses of disease in terms of failure of functioning to analyses of illness in terms of failure of action. The concept of action thus provides a natural conduit for two-way exchanges of ideas between philosophy and psychiatry. The potential fruitfulness of such exchanges is illustrated with an outline of the mutual heuristic significance of psychiatric work on delusions and philosophical accounts of Intentionality.

Biological Psychiatry↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Bioethics and the breakdown of the bicameral mind: Sacks and Luria revisited.

Since antiquity, individuals have attempted to relate mental processes to circumscribed areas of the brain. In 1935 the neurologist Wilder Penfield purported to know, "the humming of the mind's machinery, and where words come from," after he electrically stimulated areas of the exposed human cortex. Recent theories have suggested a functional separation of the dominant and the nondominant hemispheres, the right brain/left brain concept of thought and personality. One author has even proposed that human consciousness and modern civilization developed when the bicameral mind broke down, and the left brain achieved mastery over the right nondominant temporal lobe. Compared to these mechanistic approaches to brain function and human personality, the Russian neurologist, A.R. Luria and his American follower, Oliver Sacks, have developed a more intellectually satisfying and clinically useful approach which relies on a fuller understanding of the doctor-patient....

Bioethics↗

PubMed2007

[The brain-mind debate. Problems in the philosophy of science with regard to psychiatry].

The present interdisciplinary brain-mind debate with regard to neurobiology shows deficits in the criticism of methods and in the precision of language and argumentation. Simplifying localisations of psychic functions, insufficient explanations and over-interpretations in the sense of physical determinism are the consequence. This can be demonstrated in deficits of neurobiological theories of volitional action. Therefore, the current concept of man is less perturbed than is proposed by neurobiologists. For psychiatry besides the neurobiological approach also a separate way of building models seems to be useful if present theoretical psychology and systems science would be regarded. In particular, the systems science of natural systems offers new opportunities to bridge gaps between disciplines involved in the brain-mind debate.

Awareness↗

PubMed2001

The effects of a mindfulness meditation-based stress reduction program on mood and symptoms of stress in cancer outpatients: 6-month follow-up.

The goals of this work were to assess the effects of participation in a mindfulness meditation-based stress reduction program on mood disturbance and symptoms of stress in cancer outpatients immediately after and 6 months after program completion. A convenience sample of eligible cancer patients were enrolled after they had given informed consent. All patients completed the Profile of Mood States (POMS) and Symptoms of Stress Inventory (SOSI) both before and after the intervention and 6 months later. The intervention consisted of a mindfulness meditation group lasting 1.5 h each week for 7 weeks, plus daily home meditation practice. A total of 89 patients, average age 51, provided pre-intervention data. Eighty patients provided post-intervention data, and 54 completed the 6-month follow-up The participants were heterogeneous with respect to type and stage of cancer. Patients' scores decreased significantly from before to after the intervention on the POMS and SOSI total scores and most subscales, indicating less mood disturbance and fewer symptoms of stress, and these improvements were maintained at the 6-month follow-up. More advanced stages of cancer were associated with less initial mood disturbance, while more home practice and higher initial POMS scores predicted improvements on the POMS between the pre- and post-intervention scores. Female gender and more education were associated with higher initial SOSI scores, and improvements on the SOSI were predicted by more education and greater initial mood disturbance. This program was effective in decreasing mood disturbance and stress symptoms for up to 6 months in both male and female patients with a wide variety of cancer diagnoses, stages of illness, and educational background, and with disparate ages.

Female↗

PubMed2005

Weak central coherence and its relations to theory of mind and anxiety in autism.

Recent theory and research suggests that weak central coherence, a specific perceptual-cognitive style, underlies the central disturbance in autism. This study sought to provide a test of the weak central coherence hypothesis. In addition, this study explored the relations between the weak central coherence hypothesis, theory of mind skills, and social-emotional functioning in a group of high functioning children with autism. Results revealed equivocal support for the weak central coherence hypothesis, but found moderate correlations between verbal weak central coherence and theory of mind measures. No significant findings were observed between weak central coherence measures and social-emotional functioning.

Anxiety↗

PubMed2004

Autistic children's use of semantic common sense and theory of mind: a comparison with typical and mentally retarded children.

To compare Japanese autistic children's use of semantic knowledge and theory of mind with mentally retarded and typically developing children's, they were tested on their comprehension of active and passive sentences and false belief understanding. Autistic children were sensitive to plausibility levels of semantic bias as were 4-year-olds with typical development when comprehending sentences, although impaired in belief understanding as compared with mentally retarded children and typically developing 5-year-olds. Children's sentence comprehension had no association with belief understanding. Results suggest that autistic children with certain verbal intelligence can utilize semantic common sense to comprehend sentences as can typically developing children and that the ability to comprehend sentences is relatively independent of theory of mind.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2004

Understanding of thought bubbles as mental representations in children with autism: implications for theory of mind.

Standard false belief tasks indicate that normally developing children do not fully develop a theory of mind until the age of 4 years and that children with autism have an impaired theory of mind. Recent evidence, however, suggests that children as young as 3 years of age understand that thought bubbles depict mental representations and that these can be false. Twelve normally developing children and 11 children with autism were tested on a standard false belief task and a number of tasks that employed thought bubbles to represent mental states. While the majority of normally developing children and children with autism failed the standard false belief task, they understood that (i) thought bubbles represent thought, (ii) thought bubbles can be used to infer an unknown reality, (iii) thoughts can be different, and (iv) thoughts can be false. These results indicate that autistic children with a relatively low verbal mental age may be capable of understanding mental representations.

Autistic Disorder↗

PubMed2004

Social cognition in Tourette's syndrome: intact theory of mind and impaired inhibitory functioning.

Although associations between social cognition involving theory of mind and non-social executive skills have frequently been reported, dissociations in performance have also been found. The present study was designed to examine social and non-social cognition in uncomplicated Tourette Syndrome (TS). Adult TS participants without comorbid diagnoses were compared to matched healthy control participants on social cognition measures involving theory of mind and empathy, and on non-social executive tasks. Participants with TS were found to make more errors than a matched control group on an inhibitory task, but did not differ on other executive measures or on the social cognition measures. The implications of the findings for our understanding of TS and of the relationship between social cognition and executive skills are discussed.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2007

Do children with autism have a theory of mind? A non-verbal test of autism vs. specific language impairment.

Children with autism have delays in the development of theory of mind. However, the sub-group of children with autism who have little or no language have gone untested since false belief tests (FB) typically involve language. FB understanding has been reported to be intact in children with specific language impairment (SLI). This raises the possibility that a non-verbal FB test would distinguish children with autism vs. children with SLI. The present study tested two predictions: (1) FB understanding is to some extent independent of language ability; and (2) Children with autism with low language levels show specific impairment in theory of mind. Results confirmed both predictions. Results are discussed in terms of the role of language in the development of mindreading.

Autistic Disorder↗

PubMed1995

The many faces of belief: reflections on Fodor's and the child's theory of mind.

I contrast Fodor's theory of the child's Very Simple Theory of Mind (VSTM), which differs from adult folk psychology only in that it recognizes fewer intentional objects, with my view that children's concepts cross-cut the adult conceptual system. More specifically, young children do not distinguish between the state of affairs a belief is about and how this state of affairs is though of, which puts a severe limit on their understanding of belief as distinct from pretence. The two different positions are evaluated against empirical data on children's developing "theory of mind".

Child, Preschool↗

PubMed1995

Three-year follow-up and clinical implications of a mindfulness meditation-based stress reduction intervention in the treatment of anxiety disorders.

A previous study of 22 medical patients with DSM-III-R-defined anxiety disorders showed clinically and statistically significant improvements in subjective and objective symptoms of anxiety and panic following an 8-week outpatient physician-referred group stress reduction intervention based on mindfulness meditation. Twenty subjects demonstrated significant reductions in Hamilton and Beck Anxiety and Depression scores postintervention and at 3-month follow-up. In this study, 3-year follow-up data were obtained and analyzed on 18 of the original 22 subjects to probe long-term effects. Repeated measures analysis showed maintenance of the gains obtained in the original study on the Hamilton [F(2,32) = 13.22; p < 0.001] and Beck [F(2,32) = 9.83; p < 0.001] anxiety scales as well as on their respective depression scales, on the Hamilton panic score, the number and severity of panic attacks, and on the Mobility Index-Accompanied and the Fear Survey. A 3-year follow-up comparison of this cohort with a larger group of subjects from the intervention who had met criteria for screening for the original study suggests generalizability of the results obtained with the smaller, more intensively studied cohort. Ongoing compliance with the meditation practice was also demonstrated in the majority of subjects at 3 years. We conclude that an intensive but time-limited group stress reduction intervention based on mindfulness meditation can have long-term beneficial effects in the treatment of people diagnosed with anxiety disorders.

Adult↗

PubMed1995

Theory of mind: evolutionary history of a cognitive specialization.

Traditional analyses of the evolution of intelligence have emphasized commonality and continuity among species. However, recent research suggests that humans might have specialized in a particular kind of intelligence that is related to understanding mental states such as desires, intentions and beliefs. Data indicate that the ability to reflect on one's own mental states, as well as those of others, might be the result of evolutionary changes in the prefrontal cortex. Behavioral studies in children and chimpanzees reveal both similarities and striking differences in the developmental pathways that lead to theory-of-mind capacities. Humans and great apes share many ancient patterns of social behavior, but it is too early to be certain if they interpret them in the same manner. Humans might have evolved a cognitive specialization in theory of mind, forever altering their view of the social universe.

Animals↗

PubMed1994

Narrative representations of chronic illness experience: cultural models of illness, mind, and body in stories concerning the temporomandibular joint (TMJ).

The narratives individuals told about their experiences with an illness they have come to understand as TMJ, a problem linked to the temporomandibular joints of the jaw, are complex. Each is embedded within a unique set of life circumstances and guided by individual schemas and explanatory models. Each recounts how persons have come to make sense of perplexing symptoms that are not easily categorized and treated within the North American health care system. Yet, in spite of their distinctiveness, the reconstructed narratives are not independent of shared cultural schemas, such as those relating to mind and body, and other shared models, such as the model for TMJ, which individuals come to adopt as a consequence of treatment and interaction with others. The consistent emergence of themes concerning the mind and body within and across narratives attest to their salience for understanding the narratives related here. While describing the effect of illness on individual lives, narratives also illuminate how shared understanding shape the interpretation and construction of individual experience.

Adult↗

PubMed1991

Dissipative structure and the mind-body problem.

A theory explaining the link between mind and body is presented which depends upon viewing personal awareness as a figure against the ground of infinity. It is proposed that a tendency toward dissipation, in tension with an opposite tendency toward structural integrity, determines both the 'illumination' and specificity of awareness. Mind, as an aspect of the awareness bubble, is envisioned as influencing the body via a regressive discrepancy in relation to the current organization of the body mass - a conclusion derived from the fact that the origin of the tension between structure and its dissipation extends regressively back to the time when self was infinite or boundless, i.e., non-existent. This regressive discrepancy drives behavior in an expectable and therefore visible direction [corrected]. The entire thesis rests upon viewing reality as fundamentally personal, such that the linkage between a sensory field and neural activity can be explained on the basis of a simple gap between structure and its dissipation. The significance of this viewpoint for understanding the brain is briefly discussed.

Awareness↗

PubMed1994

Isolation of a Francisella tularensis mutant that is sensitive to serum and oxidative killing and is avirulent in mice: correlation with the loss of MinD homologue expression.

We constructed mutant strains of Francisella tularensis biotype novicida by insertional mutagenesis with a kanamycin resistance (KmR) cassette. One mutant, KEM7, was defective for survival in macrophages in comparison with the wild-type (WT) strain and a random insertion strain, KEM21. While all three strains exhibited intracellular growth, the number of viable KEM7 present after 24-48 h of infection was approximately 10 times less than that of WT or KEM21. This observation was apparently due to a reduced number of viable KEM7 associated with the macrophages one hour after phagocytosis. KEM7 was approximately 3 times more susceptible than WT or KEM21 to killing by the products of the xanthine-xanthine oxidase reaction or by hydrogen peroxide. KEM7 was also found to be susceptible to killing by serum, whereas WT and KEM21 were resistant. Upon intravenous inoculation of C57BL/6 mice, the number of KEM7 in the livers and spleens 48 h post-infection was found to be 1,000- to 10,000-times less than that of either KEM21 or WT. DNA sequence analysis at the KmR insertion site suggested that the F. tularensis homologue of minD had been interrupted. Western immunoblot analysis confirmed the presence of a MinD homologue in F. tularensis WT and KEM21, and demonstrated its absence in KEM7.

Adenosine Triphosphatases↗

PubMed2026

The combined and independent influence of food texture and a 'mindful eating' instruction on eating rate and food intake among Dutch primary schoolchildren.

Eating rate (ER), the amount of food consumed per unit of time, is a key determinant of food intake, with faster ER associated with larger meal size. Research in adults has shown that both sensory properties like texture, and instructions can influence ER and intake. However, their independent and combined effect on ER and intake in children remain poorly understood. This study examined the effects of food texture and a 'mindful eating' instruction on ER and food intake in children. Children (N = 73), 38 boys, aged 4-12 years, participated in a 4-week cluster-randomized incomplete cross-over study conducted during regular school lunches. Using a 2×3 factorial design, children were exposed to two levels of food texture (softer vs. harder whole-grain buns) and three types of instructions (none, control, 'mindful'). Linear mixed models with repeated measures were used, adjusting for sex and group. As the interaction between food-texture and type of instructions was non-significant, it was excluded from the final models. Results revealed a strong main effect of food texture on ER and food intake (all p < 0.001), where compared with softer buns, harder buns were associated with a slower eating rate (Δ = -6.67 g/min, SE = 0.59) and reduced food intake (Δ = -70 g, SE = 8). In contrast, type of instruction had no significant effect on ER or intake (p = 0.85). Our findings demonstrate that food texture exerts a dominant influence on children's eating rate and food intake, highlighting texture modification as a potential leverage point for influencing ER and intake in children.

Humans↗

PubMed2006

Oxytocin improves "mind-reading" in humans.

BACKGROUND: The ability to "read the mind" of other individuals, that is, to infer their mental state by interpreting subtle social cues, is indispensable in human social interaction. The neuropeptide oxytocin plays a central role in social approach behavior in nonhuman mammals. METHODS: In a double-blind, placebo-controlled, within-subject design, 30 healthy male volunteers were tested for their ability to infer the affective mental state of others using the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET) after intranasal administration of 24 IU oxytocin. RESULTS: Oxytocin improved performance on the RMET compared with placebo. This effect was pronounced for difficult compared with easy items. CONCLUSIONS: Our data suggest that oxytocin improves the ability to infer the mental state of others from social cues of the eye region. Oxytocin might play a role in the pathogenesis of autism spectrum disorder, which is characterized by severe social impairment.

Administration, Intranasal↗

PubMed2005

Attributions on the brain: neuro-imaging dispositional inferences, beyond theory of mind.

People need to predict what other people will do, and the other person's perceived disposition is the preferred mode of prediction. People less often use, for example, shared social norms to explain another person's behavior. Social psychology's last half-century of research on attribution theory offers precise, validated paradigms for testing how people think about other people's minds. Neuro-imaging data from one classic attribution paradigm shows the unique priority given to inferring chronic, idiosyncratic dispositions (unique attitudes, individual personality, idiosyncratic intent), compared to other kinds of mental contents. Specifically, sentences describing behavior that is low in consensus across actors, low in distinctiveness across entities, and high in consistency over time (compared with the other 7 low-high combinations) uniquely elicits (a) person attributions and (b) activation in the superior temporal sulcus. Ignoring consensus, both low-distinctiveness, high-consistency combinations (compared to 6 remaining combinations) also activate the MPFC, consistent with decades of behavioral data showing that general social cognition neglects consensus information. Thus, activated areas converge with prior neuro-imaging data on theory of mind and social cognition, but more precisely isolate the exact nature of the inferences that activate these areas.

Adult↗