The Role of Dynamic Core and Mirror Neuron System in Dissociative Disorder
Main Article Content
Abstract
This paper examines the current problems in understanding and conceptualizing the “personalities” of individuals with dissociate identity disorder while seeking a biological correlation of these personalities. First, the current theoretical ambiguity and potential problems regarding how we understand personalities in dissociate identity disorder are delineated by examining current international diagnostic criteria and views proposed by leading experts on the topic. The general trend is not to acknowledge each personality as having an independent sense of self, but rather a partial and fragmentary one, which does not seem to match well with its clinical manifestations. The author subsequently proposes that each personality has an independent neurological correlate, a neural network integrated as a dynamic core, as proposed by G. Edelman and G. Tononi. Although their theory is not designed to explicate personalities in dissociate identity disorder, the biological correlates of the personalities might be approximated to a coexistence of multiple dynamic cores, which was predicted by them, and partially exemplified by brain functions in split-brain experiments. The author then draws on the current understanding of the mirror neuron system discovered by G. Rizzolatti, V. Gallese, et al., which forms a basis for the understanding of how our sense of self is formed. They propose that the potential dysfunction of the mirror neuron system in a traumatic and critical situation might explain how different personalities are formed. Finally, the article discusses how these advances might be incorporated into our understanding and treatment of individuals with dissociate identity disorder.
Article Details
The Medical Research Archives grants authors the right to publish and reproduce the unrevised contribution in whole or in part at any time and in any form for any scholarly non-commercial purpose with the condition that all publications of the contribution include a full citation to the journal as published by the Medical Research Archives.
References
(2) Rizzolatti G, Craighero L. The mirror-neuron system. Annual Review of Neuroscience. 2004;27:169-192.
(3) American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5). American Psychiatric Publishing; 2013.
(4) James W. The principles of psychology. New York, NY: Dover. 1890/1950.
(5) Ellenberger HF. The discovery of Consciousness; the history and evolution of dynamic psychiatry; Basic Books, New York;1970.
(6) Van der Hart O, Dorahy MJ. history of the concept of dissociation. In Dell PF. & O'Neil JA. Eds. Dissociation and the dissociative disorders: DSM-V and beyond. Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group; 2009,3-26.
(7) Loewenstein, R.J. An Office Mental Status Examination for Complex Chronic Dissociative Symptoms and Multiple Personality Disorder. Psychiatric Clinics of North America.1991;14(3):567-604.
(8) Dell PF. Preface. In Dell PF. & O'Neil JA. Eds. Dissociation and the dissociative disorders: DSM-V and beyond. Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group; 2009;xix-xxi.
(9) Putnam FW. Diagnosis and Treatment of Multiple Personality Disorder. the Guilford Press;1989.
(10) Ross, C.A. Dissociative Identity Disorder. Diagnosis, Clinical Features, and Treatment of Multiple personality. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.;1997.
(11) van der Hart O, Nijenhuis ERS, Steele K. The Haunted Self. W.W.Norton & Co. New York, London; 2006.
(12) International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation. Guidelines for Treating Dissociative Identity Disorder in Adults, Third Revision. Journal of Trauma & Dissociation. 2011;12(2):115–187.
(13) Jaspers K, Hoenig J, Hamilton MW. trans. General psychopathology.1997.
(14) van der Kolk B. The body keeps the score: Memory and the evolving psychobiology of post-traumatic stress. Harvard Review of Psychiatry.1994;1(5):253-265.
(15) Hansen M, Műllerová J, Elklit A, Armour C. Can the dissociative PTSD subtype be identified across two distinct trauma samples meeting caseness for PTSD? Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 2016;51(8):1159-1169.
(16) Stein DJ, Koenen KC, Friedman MJ, Hill E, McLaughlin K A, Petukhova M, Kessler RC. Dissociation in posttraumatic stress disorder: Evidence from the world mental health surveys. Biological Psychiatry. 2013;73(4):302-312.
(17) Porges S. The Polyvagal Theory: Neurophysiological Foundations of Emotions, Attachment, Communication, and Self-Regulation. The Norton Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology; 2011.
(18) Reinders AATS, Nijenhuis ERS, Paans AMJ, Korf J, Willemsen ATM, den Boer JA. One brain. two selves. Neurolmage.2003;20(4):2119-2125.
(19) Reinders AA, Nijenhuis ER, Quak J, Korf J, Haaksma J, Paans AM, Willemsen AT, den Boer JA. Psychobiological characteristics of dissociative identity disorder: a symptom provocation study. Biol Psychiatry. 2006;60(7):730-40.
(20) Okano K. Problem of ‘‘otherness’’ in dissociative disorder. European Journal of Trauma and Dissociation.2019;5(4):1-7.
(21) Edelman GM. Wider Than the Sky: The Phenomenal Gift of Consciousness. New Heaven: Yale University Press, 2005.
(22) Edelman GM, Gally JA, Baars BJ. Biology of Consciousness. Front Psychol. 2011;2, article 4.
(23) Baars BJ. A Cognitive Theory of Consciousness. Cambridge University Press,1993.
(24) Sherrington CS. The integrative action of the nervous system, New Haven, CT
Yale University Press;1906.
(25) Tononi G. Integrated Information Theory. Scholarpedia. 2015;10(1):4164.
(26) Tononi G, Koch C. Consciousness: here, there and everywhere? Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B.2015;370: 20140167.
(27) Haan EHF, Corballis PM, et al. Split-Brain: What We Know Now and Why This is Important for Understanding Consciousness. Neuropsychology Review. 2020:30(2):224-233.
(28) Gazzaniga MS. Cerebral specialization and interhemispheric communication - Does the corpus callosum enable to human condition? Brain. 2000;123(7):1293-1326.
(29) Nass R, Gazzaniga M. Cerebral Lateralization and Specialization in Human Central Nervous System. Handbook of Physiology.2011.
(30) LeDoux JE, Wilson DH, Gazzaniga MS. A Divided Mind: Observations on the Conscious Properties of the Separated Hemispheres. Ann Neurol.1977; 2(5):417-421.
(31) LeDoux JE, Risse GL, et al. Cognition and commissurotomy. Brain. 1977; 100 (1): 87-104.
(32) LeDoux, J.E. The Emotional Brain. The Mysterious Underpinnings of Emotional Life. The Touchstone.
1996.
(33) Oizumi M, Albantakis L, Tononi G. From the Phenomenology to the Mechanisms of Consciousness: Integrated Information Theory 3.0. PLoS Comput. Biol. 2014 May 8;10(5):e1003588.
(34) McDougall W. An outline of abnormal psychology. London: Methuen;1926.
(35) Howell E. Ferenczi’s Concept of Identification with The Aggressor: Understanding Dissociative Structure with Interacting Victim and Abuser Self-States. The American Journal of Psychoanalysis. 2014;74(1):48-59.
(36) Ferenczi S. Confusion of the tongues between the adults and the child (The language of tenderness and of passion). International Journal of Psycho-Analysis.1949;30:225- 231.
(37) Rizzolatti G, Fabbri-Destro M. Mirror neurons: from discovery to Autism. Experimental Brain Research. 2010;200 (3–4): 223-237.
(38) Iacoboni M. Mirroring People: The New Science of How We Connect with Others. Farrar, Straus and Giroux;2009.
(39) Rozzi S, Buccino G, Ferrari PF. Mirror neuron and imitation. In Routledge Handbook of Motor Control and Motor Learning By Albert Gollhofer, Wolfgang Taube, Jens Bo Nielsen.2013;175-194.
(40) Arbib M, Bonaiuto J. From grasping to complex imitation: Mirror systems on the path to language. Mind & Society. 2009;7(1):43-64.
(41) Ramachandran VS. The tell-tale brain. Norton & Company, 2011.
(42) van der Kolk B. The Body Keeps the Score: Mind, Brain and Body in the Transformation of Trauma. Penguin, 2015.
(43) American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV). American Psychiatric Publishing;1994.
(44) Spiegel D. Editorial. Am J Psychiatry.2006;163(4):566-568.
(45) Russell J, Cohn R. eds. Abigail and Brittany Hensel. Book on Demand Ltd; 2012.
(46) Durstewitz D, Koppe G, Meyer-Lindenberg A. Deep neural networks in psychiatry. Molecular Psychiatry. 2019;24:1583-1598.
(47) Hilgard E. Divided consciousness: Multiple Controls in Human Thought and Action. New York, John Wiley and Sons;1977.