Empathy, Phenomenology & Cognitive Neuroscience

A new article on Empathy, Philosophy, Psychopathology and Cognitive Neuroscience has been published with the contribution of Crossing Dialogues. Its title is “The many faces of empathy, between phenomenology and neuroscience”, and the abstract is the following:

The definition of empathy differs among the domains which deal with it. Introduced in medicine and psychology in the late 19th-early 20^th century, it received contrasting definitions from philosophers and psychopathologists. The neuroscience paradigm of empathy for pain allowed us to identify two components of empathy, one automatic, bottom-up, and one cognitive, top-down.

The role of  mirror neurons in this context appears to be central. Empathy is influenced by perception of other, closeness, belonging to a social group, and gender, with women empathizing more than men. The areas involved are the self-other distinction areas (dorsomedial prefrontal cortex and temporoparietal junction), the anterior insula, and the anterior cingulate.

The activations identified in the brain allow for better understanding the phenomenon, but not to draw a consensus definition. Rather than providing responses, the neurosciences send  back to philosophy new, formidable questions to be asked.

The paper has been published on the Archives of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, 2013; 4 : 5-12. A free download is available at: http://www.archivespp.pl/uploads/images/2013_15_4/5Aragona_APP_4_2013.pdf

DSM-5 as a bridge.

A new paper has been published by the Crossing Dialogues Association on the interdisciplinary debate on the DSM-5 (the new American psychiatric classification). Published in Italian, this paper critically discusses the relationship between current psychiatric nosography (the DSM-5) and the neurosciences. The title is: “Un ponte verso nuovi approcci diagnostici che rischia il collasso”, and the link is: http://www.sipnei.it/index.php/pubblicazioni/pneinews/itemlist/category/34-pneinews-2013

ALS, pain and depression

As a result of the collaboration between the Crossing Dialogues Association and the ALS Centre of the University La Sapienza in Rome, an interdisciplinary study on the relationship between pain, depression and quality of life in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis has been published. The article is freely readable at: http://www.functionalneurology.com/index.php?PAGE=articolo_dett&id_article=5970&ID_ISSUE=691

Here is the abstract: The complications related to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) include pain. A higher risk of depression and a negative effect on quality of life (QoL) might be expected in ALS patients with pain. The aims of this study were to evaluate the prevalence of pain in ALS patients, to compare measures of depression and QoL in patients with and without pain, and to study the influence of depression scores and pain on the QoL of ALS patients with pain. Forty ALS patients were enrolled, and 36 were included in the analysis. Seventy-two percent of patients reported pain. Pain intensity was significantly related to a worsening of QoL (p<.05). This effect was no longer significant after considering depression scores as a covariate. Depression scores significantly decreased QoL (p<.02) and this effect remained significant after considering pain intensity as a covariate (p<.05). Our study suggests that pain is frequent in ALS patients and that depressive symptoms are significantly related to poorer QoL. Clinicians should pay more attention to both pain and depressive symptoms in ALS patients considering their effect on QoL.

Neopositivism and Psychiatric Classification - Part 2

The second part of the study on Neopositivism and Psychiatric Classification has been published on History of Psychiatry. In this second part the concrete historical pathways are considered, showing that probably neopositivism shaped the DSM implicitly. In the same paper the present status of the epistemological debate is presented and it is showed that when the DSM-III appeared, Hempel himself had already abandoned the “reliability first” principle. The following is the abstract. The entire paper can be found at: http://hpy.sagepub.com/content/24/4/415.abstract

Abstract

Little is known about the concrete historical sources for the use of neopositivist operational criteria by the DSM-III. This paper suggests that distinct sources operated implicitly. The current usefulness of the operational approach is questioned. It is shown that: (a) in epistemology, neopositivism has been replaced by more adequate accounts; (b) psychologists rejected operational definitions because these were unable to define the majority of mental phenomena; (c) mental symptoms cannot be directly described as such, because they already make part of the psychiatric diagnosis to which they belong. In conclusion, diagnosing is based on the hermeneutical co-construction of mental symptoms. The failure of the neopositivist programme suggests that it is time to reconcile scientific formalization and semiotic activity.