scholarly journals An Emerging Natural History in the Development, Mechanisms and Worldwide Prevalence of Major Mental Disorders

2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 149-154
Author(s):  
Nicholas Pediaditakis
Keyword(s):  
Mental Disorders ◽  
Brain Function ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Common Occurrence ◽  
Clinical Expression ◽  
Premorbid Personality ◽  
Trade Off ◽  
Clinical Observations ◽  
Temperamental Trait ◽  
Over Time

Conciliating recent findings from molecular genetics, evolutionary biology, and clinical observations together point to new understandings regarding the mechanism, development and the persistent worldwide prevalence of major mental disorders (MMDs), which should be considered the result of an evolutionary downside trade off. Temperamental/trait variability, by facilitating choices for individual and group responses, confers robustness flexibility and resilience crucial to success of our species. Extreme temperamental variants, originating evolutionarily from the asocial aspect of human nature, also constitute the premorbid personality of the disorders. The latter create vulnerable individuals out of whom some will develop MMDs but at much higher rate to that of the general population. Significantly, similar temperamental “lopsidedness” enables many of these vulnerable individuals, if intelligent, tenacious, and curious, to be creative and contribute to our survival while some may also develop MMDs. All have a common neural-developmental origin and share characteristics in their clinical expression and pharmacological responses also expressed as mixed syndromes or alternating ones over time. Over-pruning of synaptic neurons may be considered the trigger of such occurrences or conversely, the failure to prevent them in spite of it. The symptoms of the major mental disorders are made up of antithetical substitutes as an expression of a disturbed over-all synchronizing property of brain function for all higher faculties previously unconsidered in their modeling. The concomitant presence of psychosis is a generic common occurrence.

The Evolutionary Biology of Species

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy G. Barraclough
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Distinct Species ◽  
Species Boundaries ◽  
Central Thesis ◽  
Species Accumulation ◽  
Multicellular Organisms ◽  
Broad Approach ◽  
Over Time

‘Species’ are central to understanding the origin and dynamics of biological diversity; explaining why lineages split into multiple distinct species is one of the main goals of evolutionary biology. However, the existence of species is often taken for granted, and precisely what is meant by species and whether they really exist as a pattern of nature has rarely been modelled or critically tested. This novel book presents a synthetic overview of the evolutionary biology of species, describing what species are, how they form, the consequences of species boundaries and diversity for evolution, and patterns of species accumulation over time. The central thesis is that species represent more than just a unit of taxonomy; they are a model of how diversity is structured as well as how groups of related organisms evolve. The author adopts an intentionally broad approach to consider what species constitute, both theoretically and empirically, and how we detect them, drawing on a wealth of examples from microbes to multicellular organisms.

The Influence of Social Factors on Common Mental Disorders

1990 ◽  
Vol 156 (5) ◽  
pp. 704-713 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Goldberg ◽  
Keith Bridges ◽  
Diane Cook ◽  
Barbara Evans ◽  
David Grayson
Keyword(s):  
Mental Disorders ◽  
Social Factors ◽  
Common Mental Disorders ◽  
Anxiety And Depression ◽  
Symptom Dimensions ◽  
Personality Variables ◽  
Over Time

This study distinguishes between processes that cause individuals to experience symptoms – destabilisation – and those that are associated with loss of symptoms over time – restitution. It is shown that different clinical, social, and personality variables are associated with each of these processes. Where destabilisation is concerned, it is shown that different variables were associated with the development of symptoms of anxiety and those of depression. Different variables were associated with restitution, and they did not show the same relationship with the symptom dimensions of anxiety and depression as those which were associated with destabilisation.

Endophenotypes and Diagnostic Categories: Event-related Potentials and the Schizophrenia-bipolar Dichotomy

2009 ◽  
Vol 24 (S1) ◽  
pp. 1-1
Author(s):  
J. Maltez ◽  
D. Dias ◽  
H. Silva
Keyword(s):  
Information Processing ◽  
Mental Disorders ◽  
Brain Structure ◽  
Brain Function ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Intermediate Level ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
Diagnostic Categories ◽  
Biologic Markers ◽  
Related Potentials

After decades of neuroscientific research and taxonomic endeavour in psychiatry the quest for biologic markers specific enough to accommodate nosologic categories has not succeeded. Yet, neurophysiology and neuroimaging have developed pwoerful tools to investigate brain function. An immense amount of data has been accumulated regarding normal and pathologic information processing, cognition, emotion and other domains. Some have been correlated with genes underpinning diseases and are candidate endophenotypes. These stand at an intermediate level between genes and phenotype. They encompass several kinds of dysfunctions or abnormalities in brain structure. Rather than matching to singular diagnostic categories, as we devise them today, the same endophenotype is usually shared by distinct pathologic entities. Assuming tha they reflect specif dysfunctions this raises critical questions regarding the DSM way of classifying mental disorders and to the understanding of the neurobiologic phenomena underlying them. It is the purpose of this presentation to discuss these questions and review some of the data, including our own, concerning event-related potentials endophenotypes of psychosis with special focus on the schizophrenia-bipolar dichotomy and present.

scholarly journals Fluctuating selection: the perpetual renewal of adaptation in variable environments

2010 ◽  
Vol 365 (1537) ◽  
pp. 87-97 ◽  
Author(s):  
Graham Bell
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Natural Populations ◽  
Phenotypic Variance ◽  
Weak Selection ◽  
Fluctuating Selection ◽  
Environmental Variance ◽  
Strong Selection ◽  
Genomic Studies ◽  
Over Time

Darwin insisted that evolutionary change occurs very slowly over long periods of time, and this gradualist view was accepted by his supporters and incorporated into the infinitesimal model of quantitative genetics developed by R. A. Fisher and others. It dominated the first century of evolutionary biology, but has been challenged in more recent years both by field surveys demonstrating strong selection in natural populations and by quantitative trait loci and genomic studies, indicating that adaptation is often attributable to mutations in a few genes. The prevalence of strong selection seems inconsistent, however, with the high heritability often observed in natural populations, and with the claim that the amount of morphological change in contemporary and fossil lineages is independent of elapsed time. I argue that these discrepancies are resolved by realistic accounts of environmental and evolutionary changes. First, the physical and biotic environment varies on all time-scales, leading to an indefinite increase in environmental variance over time. Secondly, the intensity and direction of natural selection are also likely to fluctuate over time, leading to an indefinite increase in phenotypic variance in any given evolving lineage. Finally, detailed long-term studies of selection in natural populations demonstrate that selection often changes in direction. I conclude that the traditional gradualist scheme of weak selection acting on polygenic variation should be supplemented by the view that adaptation is often based on oligogenic variation exposed to commonplace, strong, fluctuating natural selection.

From Monetary to Nonmonetary Mechanism Design via Artificial Currencies

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Artur Gorokh ◽  
Siddhartha Banerjee ◽  
Krishnamurthy Iyer
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Mechanism Design ◽  
Real World ◽  
Price Of Anarchy ◽  
Black Box ◽  
Trade Off ◽  
Two Agents ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Artificial Currency

Nonmonetary mechanisms for repeated allocation and decision making are gaining widespread use in many real-world settings. Our aim in this work is to study the performance and incentive properties of simple mechanisms based on artificial currencies in such settings. To this end, we make the following contributions: For a general allocation setting, we provide two black-box approaches to convert any one-shot monetary mechanism to a dynamic nonmonetary mechanism using an artificial currency that simultaneously guarantees vanishing gains from nontruthful reporting over time and vanishing losses in performance. The two mechanisms trade off between their applicability and their computational and informational requirements. Furthermore, for settings with two agents, we show that a particular artificial currency mechanism also results in a vanishing price of anarchy.

The Clash of Security and Sovereignty in Quasi-Alliance

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-28
Author(s):  
Kil Joo Ban
Keyword(s):  
South Korea ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Korean War ◽  
Trade Off ◽  
Power Growth ◽  
The Korean War ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
Over Time

Abstract Which is needed more: sovereignty or security? The autonomy–security trade-off model sees this as a trade-off between a client and a patron. A client surrenders some measure of autonomy to a patron and, in turn, receives security. This paper explores whether the underlying logic is applicable to quasi-alliances between a state and a multinational regime, such as the United Nations Command (UNC). South Korea has maintained a quasi-alliance with the UNC since the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950. The level of trade-off between South Korea and the UNC, however, has been changing over time, particularly while being affected by the power growth of South Korea, a client, and the preference changes of the US, the most important actor of the UNC, a patron. This paper attempts to explain why South Korea is much more enthusiastic in seeking full sovereignty and more autonomy in the 2018–2019 détente era.

Social Pacts over Time

2020 ◽  
pp. 139-165
Author(s):  
Ferdinand Eibl
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Statistical Methods ◽  
Social Spending ◽  
Crowding Out ◽  
Economic Decline ◽  
Regime Formation ◽  
Trade Off ◽  
Spending Patterns ◽  
Oil Rents ◽  
Over Time

The chapter uses statistical methods to test observable implications of the book’s arguroent that are visible in spending patterns over time. Establishing an important crowding-out effect between military and social spending in the Middle East, the chapter empirically corroborates a key mechanism of the theory: that is, a trade-off between ‘butter and guns: Itfurther demonstrates that the authoritarian coalitions which emerged from regime formation have had important effects on the way in which (i) regimes cut back social spending in times of economic decline and (ii) distributed resource windfalls, such as oil rents. In so doing, the chapter sheds light on the variation in social spending over time within each welfare regime type.

Love is a wondrous state:1 origins and early debates

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Sue White ◽  
Matthew Gibson ◽  
David Wastell ◽  
Patricia Walsh
Keyword(s):  
Object Relations ◽  
Attachment Theory ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Developmental Psychology ◽  
Object Relations Theory ◽  
Clinical Observations ◽  
John Bowlby ◽  
Primary Object ◽  
Mary Ainsworth ◽  
State 1

This chapter traces the origins of attachment theory and reviews its component parts, including the seminal empirical research on animals and humans. Attachment theory, popularised during the 1940s and 1950s, is a synthesis of object relations theory and ethological developmental psychology. It suggests a symbiotic dance of nature and nurture, achieved through the ministering of the mother. It shares with object relations theory an emphasis on the infant's relationship with the ‘primary object’, but these ideas are combined with those from cognitive psychology, cybernetics (control systems theory), ethology, and evolutionary biology. The theory is thus an elegant, but pragmatic mishmash, arising from attempts to make sense of empirical, clinical observations of real children experiencing distressing separations, together with aspirations to make the world a better place for everybody by understanding the medium of love. Attachment theory as used in child welfare is generally attributed to the work of John Bowlby, James Robertson, and Mary Ainsworth. The chapter then considers the controversies that attachment theory has faced, particularly in the latter half of the 20th century.

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