scholarly journals The Brain Emotional Systems in Addictions: From Attachment to Dominance/Submission Systems

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Teodosio Giacolini ◽  
David Conversi ◽  
Antonio Alcaro

Human development has become particularly complex during the evolution. In this complexity, adolescence is an extremely important developmental stage. Adolescence is characterized by biological and social changes that create the prerequisites to psychopathological problems, including both substance and non-substance addictive behaviors. Central to the dynamics of the biological changes during adolescence are the synergy between sexual and neurophysiological development, which activates the motivational/emotional systems of Dominance/Submission. The latter are characterized by the interaction between the sexual hormones, the dopaminergic system and the stress axis (HPA). The maturation of these motivational/emotional systems requires the integration with the phylogenetically more recent Attachment/CARE Systems, which primarily have governed the subject’s relationships until puberty. The integration of these systems is particularly complex in the human species, due to the evolution of the process of competition related to sexual selection: from a simple fight between two individuals (of the same genus and species) to a struggle for the acquisition of a position in rank and the competition between groups. The latter is an important evolutionary acquisition and believed to be the variable that has most contributed to enhancing the capacity for cooperation in the human species. The interaction between competition and cooperation, and between competition and attachment, characterizes the entire human relational and emotional structure and the unending work of integration to which the BrainMind is involved. The beginning of the integration of the aforementioned motivational/emotional systems is currently identified in the prepubertal period, during the juvenile stage, with the development of the Adrenarche—the so-called Adrenal Puberty. This latter stage is characterized by a low rate of release of androgens, the hormones released by the adrenal cortex, which activate the same behaviors as those observed in the PLAY system. The Adrenarche and the PLAY system are biological and functional prerequisites of adolescence, a period devoted to learning the difficult task of integrating the phylogenetically ancient Dominance/Submission Systems with the newer Attachment/CARE Systems. These systems accompany very different adaptive goals which can easily give rise to mutual conflict and can in turn make the balance of the BrainMind precarious and vulnerable to mental suffering.

2008 ◽  
Vol 198 (2) ◽  
pp. 403-417 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ellen H Stolte ◽  
Aurélia F de Mazon ◽  
Karen M Leon-Koosterziel ◽  
Maria Jesiak ◽  
Nic R Bury ◽  
...  

In higher vertebrates, mineralo- (aldosterone) and glucocorticoids (cortisol/corticosterone) exert their multiple actions via specific transcription factors, glucocorticoid (GR) and mineralocorticoid (MR) receptors. Teleostean fishes lack aldosterone and mineral regulatory processes seem under dominant control by cortisol. Despite the absence of the classical mineralocorticoid aldosterone, teleostean fishes do have an MR with cortisol and possibly 11-deoxycorticosterone (DOC) (as alternative for aldosterone) as predominant ligands. We studied corticoid receptors in common carp (Cyprinus carpio L). Through homology cloning and bioinformatic analysis, we found duplicated GR genes and a single MR gene. The GR genes likely result from a major genomic duplication event in the teleostean lineage; we propose that the gene for a second MR was lost. Transactivation studies show that the carp GRs and MR have comparable affinity for cortisol; the MR has significantly higher sensitivity to DOC, and this favours a role for DOC as MR ligand in fish physiology. mRNA of the GRs and the MR is expressed in forebrain (in pallial areas homologous to mammalian hippocampus), corticotrophin-releasing hormone (CRH) cells in the pre-optic nucleus (NPO) and pituitary pars distalis ACTH cells, three key neural/endocrine components of the stress axis. After exposure to prolonged and strong (not to mild acute) stressors, mRNA levels of both GRs and MR become down-regulated in the brain, but not in the NPO CRH cells or pituitary ACTH cells. Our data predicts a function in stress physiology for all CRs and suggest telencephalon as a first line cortisol target in stress.


2017 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 104-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dilip Balu

The author's clinical experience with the Child Protection and Mental Health Care systems informs this brief practice-focused paper. The author posits that Secondary Traumatic Stress and Vicarious Trauma are central to understanding the impact of relationally traumatic material and the experience of individuals, families, team and the wider ecology of care systems. In particular, the author hypothesises that the tendency of systems to become fragmented in operation, with silos of sub-parts working parallel to each other, may be a natural adaptation to the ways in which traumatic experience ripples across system boundaries. This ‘ripple effect’ may lead to increasing emotional and relational reactivity, and survival-oriented inward focus of energies and efforts. The metaphor of the brain and nervous system is used to explore ideas of connection and integration in care systems. Trauma-informed leadership by individuals and teams is also touched upon in relation to reducing fear-driven clinical practice.


2006 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
pp. S234-S235
Author(s):  
J. Wójcikowski ◽  
K. Gołembiowska ◽  
W.A. Danie

Author(s):  
Tomasz Prauzner

<p class="IATED-Affiliation">The development of computer technology is reflected in among other things, the development of modern didactics. Current pedagogy and media education, as a fast developing discipline of general pedagogy, is a topic of a number of studies. Applying the modern multimedia aids at various stages and in various types of education is considered as an indispensable element of modern didactics, due to new opportunities the modern media offers. The paper deals with didactic innovations based on research conducted within pedagogy on the observable social changes induced by development in information technology. The main objective of the paper is to address the issue how to apply modern technology and research findings on the functioning of the brain in order to improve the effectiveness of the learning process. The paper presents only the results of a pilot study, which can be used as a basis for further research using medical equipment for analyzing EEG brain waves for didactic purposes.</p><p> </p>


2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 199-216
Author(s):  
Stéphanie Walsh Matthews ◽  
Marcel Danesi

Abstract Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become a powerful new form of inquiry unto human cognition that has obvious implications for semiotic theories, practices, and modeling of mind, yet, as far as can be determined, it has hardly attracted the attention of semioticians in any meaningful analytical way. AI aims to model and thus penetrate mentality in all its forms (perception, cognition, emotion, etc.) and even to build artificial minds that will surpass human intelligence in the near future. This paper takes a look at AI through the lens of semiotic analysis, in the context of current philosophies such as posthumanism and transhumanism, which are based on the assumption that technology will improve the human condition and chart a path to the future progress of the human species. Semiotics must respond to the AI challenge, focusing on how abductive responses to the world generate meaning in the human sense, not in software or algorithms. The AI approach is instructive, but semiotics is much more relevant to the understanding of human cognition, because it studies signs as paths into the brain, not artificial models of that organ. The semiotic agenda can enrich AI by providing the relevant insight into human semiosis that may defy any attempt to model them.


2018 ◽  
Vol 53 (4) ◽  
pp. 383-393
Author(s):  
Dallas W Henderson ◽  
Brian C Small

The turquoise killifish Nothobranchius furzeri is an increasingly popular model species for comparative vertebrate research, and the basic physiology including responses to stressful stimuli are of primary interest. We exposed adult killifish to a single or repeated periods of acute confinement followed by analysis of tissue cortisol and plasma cortisol concentrations. Individuals were also sampled for messenger RNA (mRNA) expression of corticotropin-releasing hormone ( CRH), mineralocorticoid receptor ( MR), and glucocorticoid receptor ( GR) in the brain to examine the effects of repeated stress events on constitutive expression of these important stress axis components. Following a single 30-minute confinement stress, male plasma cortisol significantly differed from baseline ( p = 0.04). Both male and female whole-body cortisol were significantly increased ( p = 0.004 and p = 0.04, respectively) at 15 and 30 minutes poststress. Despite obvious dimorphic behavior and morphology, cortisol concentrations did not differ between the sexes. Exposure to daily repeated confinement for one week altered the cortisol response in both sexes. Time 0, 15, and 60 minutes poststress cortisol concentrations were depressed in repeatedly stressed males ( p ≤ 0.05), and times 0, 30 and 120 minutes poststress cortisol concentrations were depressed in repeatedly stressed females ( p ≤ 0.05). Constitutive expression of CRH, MR, and GR mRNA in the brain following one week of repeated stress events did not differ among treatments or sexes. This study introduces the first description of hypothalamic-pituitary-interrenal axis activity in this important model species. Reduced cortisol production in repeatedly stressed adult killifish suggests acclimation to repeated stressors. Furthermore, acclimation was rapid, and plasma cortisol concentrations altered significantly in as little as one week.


1984 ◽  
Vol 36 ◽  
pp. 163
Author(s):  
Yuji Abe ◽  
Takeshi Tadano ◽  
Kensuke Kisara ◽  
Takahiko Suzuki

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