A Monthly Summary of News and Events
Vol. 5 No. 10 - October 2002
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The opinions related in this newsletter reflect those of the author only.
Copyright (C) 2002 by EEG Spectrum International Intl, Inc. All rights reserved.
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Sorry for the delay in this month's -- caught the kids' cold.
Boundaries. Where does the self end and the world begin? Psychopathology is essentially the behavioral consequences, the toxic fallout, of boundary failures. When the boundary between self and world, mind and environment, is unstable, or is inappropriate, or too large, or too small, or too inclusive or exclusive, or too porous or too rigid, trouble begins. When we must fight to preserve our model, when it becomes unsustainable, or inaccurate, or unrewarding, everything else about our existence comes into doubt. Everything we thought we knew about ourselves and the world is suddenly insecure. And therein lies the road towards mental illness.
Mental boundaries are controlled by reward. They expand and contract, are established or dismantled, all depending upon the reward heaped upon us by the environment. Reward separates mental health from mental illness. Reward lies at the heart of most biological functions.
We are hardly aware of the first boundary we encounter in life. In fact, awareness may be the nature of that inaugural boundary. We enter life with all our needs met. Moments after conception, if we are destined to survive, we flourish and bloom, cells divide and replicate, more and more being is brought forth. An interesting philosophical system of reward. We quickly find ourselves attached to a uterine drive-in window, a McDonald's that never closes, servicing us all day and night. At this point in existence, fetus and mother are indistinguishable from each other -- from the fetus' point of view. As long as oxygen and nutrients flow, the emergent mind knows no boundary between it and not-it.
Months later, forced out into the light of day, we begin the process of developing our boundaries. We must learn the boundary of control: what do I control and what do I not control. We believe that all which is within us is without us (if I can recall my impressions from those days accurately). Each infant mind knows it is surely the entire universe...at least until older brothers or sisters intervene. Yet as long as the reward is great, the boundary between a toddler's self (what s/he controls) and the greater universe (what s/he does not) is scarcely discernable. At this age we believe the contents of our minds are always available for inspection by our elders, by our siblings, by our pets. Mental privacy comes later, and only slowly, falteringly. At this point we are perfect in our subjectivity. We are transparent, we are pure, we are subject; we contain no object. This is the state of mental health we should all aspire to. This is the same state another's love provides us, regardless of age.
As experience lowers our rate of reward, our boundary of self contracts. Where once there was unity, cohesion, equality between self and world, now we are merely an immensely large object situated at the very center of existence. There is some existence outside of our control, our awareness. Egocentrism, Piaget called it. Emotional, cognitive, and social egocentrism. All very good and actually not a bad model to hold onto, as long as you can.
When reward further dwindles, and we advance into adolescence and adulthood, the model we hold of our self may remain large, but for only a few does it remain at the center of existence. Most of us give room to the vastness of the universe, edging slightly off the center, a few inches at least, some elbow room for all the rest of god's creation. We all know people who refuse to vacate the center position even into the grave, but most of us allow the world to go on its way a bit, to orbit a new center. We grant the world this, as we are still large in comparison to most of our neighbors. I mean, we make up a third or a quarter of all existence, don't we? Who else could be larger? The universe can only fit a few of us.
And finally for some the self model collapses entirely; reward is hard to come by. The gapping universe is all, immeasurable, uncountable, and the self is merely one, a single soul, a speck. Logically it makes sense: there are 280 million Americans, and billions of foreigners, hanging around this planet, not to mention the galaxy, so how could we be so central to this design? The universe has 10 to the 88th power moving parts. We have only 10 to the 15th power -- hardly a fair fight, hardly the most important piece.
Although three more self-world models exist in this framework I've developed, I'd like to stop the description and show some pictures. Self-world models are easy to comprehend with a circle or two. Vend diagrams can do the trick, circles within circles.
The initial state I spoke of, conception until early childhood for most, State 0, is two circles labelled Self and World, perfectly overlapping. In fact there is only one apparent circle for this model, a world circle filled in entirely by the self circle. All other models distinguish between self and non-self, but there is no distinction here. At State 0, there is only subjectivity, perception without form; the perceiving mind exists without extension in the world of objects. Self and world are equals here. All other states reduce our subjectivity to a amalgam of subject-object, with more and more physical extension of the self -- not a good thing.
State 1 is not unlike Piaget's egocentric state, an early stage of child development. State 1 is depicted as a large circle (World) surrounding a slightly smaller circle (Self) positioned in its center. Some objectivity has crept in, but only some. Most children are taught to leave this model behind along with their pacifiers, to reduce their relationship and position with the infinite.
State 2 is more a change of position than size. This is the "we are special, we are still meaningful to the universe" state, diagramed as a larger circle (World) surrounding a smaller slightly off-centered circle (Self). More objectivity has crept in, more physical and imperfect extension. We are not the center around which the universe rotates, but we are not far from there, and we can recall a time when.... ahhh. I think most people try to spend their adult lives in this state (and why not!).
And finally State 3 is the reality-check state (or is it?), a large circle (World) with a tiny speck (Self) somewhere near an edge. Surely if one looks at the planet and its teeming life, surely this must be an accurate model of our existence...
I ask my students whether these four models describe all possible self-world relationships and invariably I get the wrong answer, "Yes, they do." Well, no, they don't. Because we have yet to reverse the relationships.
State -1 is when the self is larger than the universe, but at least the universe is the center concern of such an individual. Take State 1 and swap labels.
State -2 is when the self is larger and the universe is nearly the center concern. (State 2, labels swapped.)
And State -3 is when the universe is a speck on the radar screen of the infinite self. We reside in merely one of the universes this person visits on a regular basis. We all know people who live in this state. Many attend conferences about dolphins and UFOs.
So where is this going? I believe much of psychopathologies can map nicely to these diagrams, and helpfully so. Unipolar depression acts as a shift from a normal adult or childhood boundary, somewhere around State 1 and 2, towards the unhealthy State 3 model. Severe depression is, say, 2.9 state, mild 2.3 -- the models are a spectrum of continuation, not discrete jumps. Speaking of jumps, mania is often a leap into State -1 from a positive state. Bipolar, an oscillation between -1 and +3. Catatonia is the sustained residency in State 3. Paranoid schizophrenia, perhaps State -1 or -2. Here the mind is physically extended, like a jewel, something to be envied, to be stolen. Leaving State 0, pure subjectivity, produces increasing objectification of the self regardless of the direction one heads, positive or negative.
What most concerns me of all the mental illnesses is autism, the most neurological of the consciousness disorders. I suspect autistic individuals are stuck between State -2 and State -1, with higher functioning individuals closer to -1. Their minds are stuck in all self-mode, with little attention to the consensual universe. The most extreme cases, those who never learn to speak or communicate well, are probably living closer to -3.
There are numerous people who can function quite well in any of these states, though I suspect they developed nearer 0 and moved negatively in late adolescence or adulthood. Isaac Newton and Einstein probably worked out of -1 a lot, uncovering the rules of the world from the outside, you could say. Both Newton and Einstein were touched by schizophrenia -- the negative models are the schizoid ones: Newton suffered a brief psychotic break in his early 40s and Einstein's second son was schizophrenic; he couldn't function socially in the -1 state that Einstein thrived in. (Though of course Einstein did forget to wear pants to class some days.)
But this model is not yet complete. Cross out the label "World" and replace it with any other significant element of a person's life: mate, mother, child, physical body, face. In all conditions, we aspire for the equality state 0, but often seek therapy when our condition moves off this state (the mother dominates or body is out of sync with one's mind). In fact each hemisphere of the brain may make a model of the self, and only when both are equal is pure subjectivity, complete mental integration and health, attainable.
Just an nice framework to think about. Perhaps it has some use.
-DK
News & Reviews
NEW BOOKS
Handbook of Functional Neuroimaging of Cognition
by Roberto Cabeza, Alan Kingstone
Language and Epilepsy
Clinical Applications of Continuous Performance Tests
Exploring Cognition: Damaged Brains and Neural Networks
Neurobehavioural Disability and Social Handicap Following Traumatic Brain Injury
Biology of the Autistic Syndromes
Stroke Rehabilitation: A Collaborative Approach
Correlation between spectral EEG parameters and intelligence in children.
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Intelligence test variables correlated positively with alpha power and negatively with spectral power of lower frequency bands.
Alcoholic tendency and EEG arousal in women
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A positive family history of alcoholism alone or predisposing personality characteristics alone were less aroused than those without alcoholism predispositions when exposed to nonverbal positive and negative emotional stimuli.
On the pathophysiology of migraine--links for "empirically based treatment" with neurofeedback.
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Migraines appear to be the result of cortical hypersensitivity, hyperactivity, and a lack of habituation. Slow cortical potentials, associated with habituation, can be achieved with neurofeedback techniques.
Cerebral blood flow changes in depressed patients after treatment with rTMS
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Blood flow and rTMS studies indicate multiple states of depression. rTMS responders show a reduction in orbitofrontal and/or anterior cingulate blood flow.
Hemispheric predominance of abnormal findings in EEG.
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EEG from 13K patients were reviewed to determine laterality patterns of abnormal findings. A strong left predominance (79 % vs 21 %) was noted for epileptiform discharges;the left hemisphere may be more vulnerable to nosological processes.
SPECT as a diagnostic tool in mild traumatic brain injury.
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SPECT may be a useful tool in the detection of MTBI and in treatment planning despite the lack of studies (only 9 relevant ones).
EEG mapping in seasonal affective disorder.
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Differential hemispheric contributions of EEG spectra may discriminate between the varieties of depression or different depressive states.
EEG asymmetry, power, and temperament in children.
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Right frontal activation is associated with children who begin life with high reactivity and who develop fearful reactions to unfamiliar events in the second year of life.
Lateralization in individuals with high-functioning autism
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Autistics display deficiencies in left hemisphere executive function but normal lateralization effects on nonexecutive, visual-perceptual tasks.
Neurodevelopmental Impact of Childhood-onset Temporal Lobe Epilepsy on Brain Function.
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Childhood-onset temporal lobe epilepsy results in substantial reduction in brain tissue (particularly white matter, and even outside of the temporal lobes) compared to controls and late-onset TLE patients.
Executive dysfunction and clinical outcome in chronic alcoholics.
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Scores on the Behavioral Assessment of the Dysexecutive Syndrome test battery predict alcohol-nonspecific outcomes such as occupational problems but not to alcohol-specific outcomes like drinking.
Upcoming Courses
Prerequisites:
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Conferences for Neurofeedback Clinicians & Researchers | ||
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| CONFERENCE | LOCATION | DATES |
| AAPB - http://www.aapb.org | Jacksonville, FL | Mar 27-30 |
For those who've forgotten their Zen Buddhist training (from this life or another), a koan is a paradox to be meditated upon that is used to train Zen Buddhist monks to abandon ultimate dependence on reason and to force them into gaining sudden intuitive enlightenment. So here goes:
Mental illness is ...
Mental illness is ...
Mental illness is ...