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Biomedical subjects

Martin Brüne

Publications and source records attributed to Martin Brüne.

14 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

Psychopathology in great apes: concepts, treatment options and possible homologies to human psychiatric disorders.

Many captive great apes show gross behavioral abnormalities such as stereotypies, self-mutilation, inappropriate aggression, fear or withdrawal, which impede attempts to integrate these animals in existing or new social groups. These abnormal behaviors resemble symptoms associated with psychiatric disorders in humans such as depression, anxiety disorders, eating disorders, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Due to the outstanding importance of social interaction and the prolonged period of infantile and juvenile dependence, early separation of infants from their mothers and other adverse rearing conditions, solitary housing, and sensory deprivation are among the major albeit non-specific sources of psychopathology in apes. In contrast to the wealth of research in monkeys, psychopathology in apes has been under-studied, and only a few studies have examined how to alleviate abnormal behavior in captive apes. Recent studies have shown that the enrichment of living conditions and behavioral treatment (conditioning) may ameliorate some pathological features, and careful familiarization with novel physical and social environments can help re-socialize behaviorally disturbed animals, but usually not to the extent of successful mating and raising offspring. The possibility of psychopharmacological treatment of the most severe disturbed animal patients has only been reluctantly considered, but a few case reports have revealed encouraging results. This article proposes the need to expand research into ape psychopathology, which would require an essentially interdisciplinary approach of primatology and psychiatry, ultimately to the benefit of both.

Animals↗
PubMed2006

Are angry male and female faces represented in opposite hemispheres of the female brain? A study using repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS).

The universality across cultures for recognizing the facial expression of anger suggests an evolved mechanism for dealing with threat. Using low frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) and a paradigm involving color-naming latencies for angry, fearful and neutral faces, and for emotional and neutral words respectively, we found evidence for a hemispheric specialization according to the sex and emotional content of faces in female subjects. Participants showed increased attention specifically to male angry faces after stimulation of the right superior temporal lobe, whereas they showed increased attention to angry female faces after left temporal stimulation. No effect was detected regarding the processing of fearful faces or emotional words. This result suggests differential processing of sex-specific threat-related stimuli specifically involving both hemispheres, i.e., that male and female faces are processed in opposite hemispheres, which might reflect the divergent adaptive significance of male and female threat for young females.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2006

The evolutionary psychology of obsessive-compulsive disorder: the role of cognitive metarepresentation.

Repetitive unpleasant thoughts and ritualized behaviors are the key features of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). The classical neuroethological models of OCD rely largely on behavioral similarities between animal stereotypies and human compulsive rituals and are unable to account for the cognitive component of OCD. The cognitive symptoms of OCD need to be addressed in an evolutionary psychological context that incorporates information about human brain evolution. OCD can be understood as an extreme on a continuum of evolved harm-avoidance strategies. A pathological exaggeration of our evolved capacity to cognitively represent future scenarios, including imagined consequences of our own thoughts and actions (metarepresentation), may be part of the set of evolved psychological mechanisms contributing to the psychopathology of OCD. The costly side of the adaptive ability to anticipate future needs or threats could be that etiologically heterogeneous affections of the underlying striatal-frontal brain circuits may render an individual vulnerable to develop OCD.

Animals↗
PubMed2005

Theory of mind--evolution, ontogeny, brain mechanisms and psychopathology.

The ability to infer other persons' mental states and emotions has been termed 'theory of mind'. It represents an evolved psychological capacity most highly developed in humans. The evolutionary origins of theory of mind can be traced back in extant non-human primates; theory of mind probably emerged as an adaptive response to increasingly complex primate social interaction. This sophisticated 'metacognitive' ability comes, however, at an evolutionary cost, reflected in a broad spectrum of psychopathological conditions. Extensive research into autistic spectrum disorders has revealed that theory of mind may be selectively impaired, leaving other cognitive faculties intact. Recent studies have shown that observed deficits in theory of mind task performance are part of a broad range of symptoms in schizophrenia, bipolar affective disorder, some forms of dementia, 'psychopathy' and in other psychiatric disorders. This article reviews the evolutionary psychology of theory of mind including its ontogeny and representation in the central nervous system, and studies of theory of mind in psychopathological conditions.

Animals↗
PubMed2005

Emotion recognition, 'theory of mind,' and social behavior in schizophrenia.

Several studies have demonstrated that patients with schizophrenia are impaired in recognizing emotions from facial expressions and in appreciating other people's mental states--the latter commonly referred to as 'theory of mind.' The question as to how social cognitive skills relate to patients' actual social behavior is, however, largely unanswered. This study examined emotion recognition, 'theory of mind,' and social behavior in schizophrenia. Emotion recognition, 'theory of mind,' executive functioning, 'crystallized' verbal intelligence, psychopathology, and social behavior were assessed in patients with schizophrenia compared with a healthy control group. Patients were significantly impaired on all tasks involving executive functioning, emotion recognition, and 'theory of mind.' Impaired executive functioning did, however, only partially account for the deficits in social perception and social cognition. Social perception and cognition in schizophrenia predicted the odds of being a patient significantly better than nonsocial cognition. Severe social behavioral abnormalities were linked to the duration of the illness, and even more so to 'theory of mind' deficits. Considering impaired social perception and social cognition significantly contributes to the understanding of social behavioral problems in schizophrenia.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2005

"Theory of mind" in schizophrenia: a review of the literature.

The term theory of mind (ToM) refers to the capacity to infer one's own and other persons' mental states. A substantial body of research has highlighted the evolution of ToM in nonhuman primates, its emergence during human ontogeny, and impaired ToM in a variety of neuropsychiatric disorders, including schizophrenia. There is good empirical evidence that ToM is specifically impaired in schizophrenia and that many psychotic symptoms-for instance, delusions of alien control and persecution, the presence of thought and language disorganization, and other behavioral symptoms-may best be understood in light of a disturbed capacity in patients to relate their own intentions to executing behavior, and to monitor others' intentions. However, it is still under debate how an impaired ToM in schizophrenia is associated with other aspects of cognition, how the impairment fluctuates with acuity or chronicity of the schizophrenic disorder, and how this affects the patients' use of language and social behavior. In addition to these potential research areas, future studies may also address whether patients could benefit from cognitive training in this domain.

Cognition Disorders↗
PubMed2004

Proverb comprehension reconsidered--'theory of mind' and the pragmatic use of language in schizophrenia.

BACKGROUND: For decades, impaired proverb comprehension has been regarded as typical of schizophrenic thought disorder. Testing patients' proverb understanding has widely been abandoned, however, due to poor reliability and validity of the assessment procedures. Since the underlying cognitive deficit of impaired proverb interpretation remained obscure, this study sought to determine the relation of proverb understanding with other cognitive domains, particularly 'theory of mind' or 'mindreading', in schizophrenia. METHODS: 31 patients diagnosed with schizophrenia were assessed using a novel German Proverb Test [Barth, A., Küfferle, B., 2001. Die Entwicklung eines Sprichworttests zur Erfassung konkretistischer Denkstörungen bei schizophrenen Patienten. Nervenarzt 72, 853-858.], a 'theory of mind' test battery, a variety of executive functioning tests and verbal intelligence. Psychopathology was measured using the PANSS [Kay, S.R., Opler, L.A., Lindenmayer, J.P., 1989. The Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS): rationale and standardisation. Br. J. Psychiatry 158 (suppl. 7), 59-67.]. Patients' task performance was compared to a group of healthy control persons. RESULTS: 'Theory of mind', executive functioning and intelligence were strongly correlated with patients' ability to interpret proverbs correctly. In a regression analysis 'theory of mind' performance predicted, conservatively estimated, about 39% of the variance of proverb comprehension in the patient group. CONCLUSIONS: The ability to interpret such metaphorical speech that is typical of many proverbs crucially depends on schizophrenic patients' ability to infer mental states. Future studies may further address differences between schizophrenia subtypes or the relation to specific symptom clusters.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2004

Schizophrenia-an evolutionary enigma?

The term 'schizophrenia' refers to a group of disorders that have been described in every human culture. Two apparently well established findings have corroborated the need for an evolutionary explanation of these disorders: (1) cross-culturally stable incidence rates and (2) decreased fecundity of the affected individuals. The rationale behind this relates to the evolutionary paradox that susceptibility genes for schizophrenia are obviously preserved in the human genepool, despite fundamental reproductive disadvantages associated with the disorders. Some researchers have therefore proposed that a compensatory advantage must exist in people who are carriers of these genes or in their first-degree relatives. Such advantages were hypothesised to be outside the brain (e.g. greater resistance against toxins or infectious diseases), or within the social domain (e.g. schizotypal shamans, creativity). More specifically, T.J. Crow has suggested an evolutionary theory of schizophrenia that relates the disorders to an extreme of variation of hemispheric specialisation and the evolution of language due to a single gene mutation located on homologous regions of the sex chromosomes. None of the evolutionary scenarios does, however, fully account for the diversity of the symptomatology, nor does any one hypothesis acknowledge the objection that the mere prevalence of a disorder must not be confused with adaptation. In the present article, I therefore discuss the evolutionary hypotheses of schizophrenia, arguing that a symptom-based approach to psychotic disorders in evolutionary perspective may improve upon the existing models of schizophrenia.

Adaptation, Biological↗
PubMed2003

Theory of mind and the role of IQ in chronic disorganized schizophrenia.

BACKGROUND: Several studies have suggested a theory of mind (ToM) deficit in schizophrenic disorders. However, the role of interfering variables such as IQ, attention, memory, and severity of the disorder has remained ambiguous. METHODS: A theory of mind picture story comprising a sequencing task, a first and a second order false belief test, and a tactical deception test was given to a group of 23 patients with chronic disorganized schizophrenia and to 12 healthy control persons. In addition, a nonsocial picture story had to be sequenced. Severity of the psychopathology was measured by using the brief psychiatric rating scale (BPRS), IQ was estimated using the 'Mehrfachwahlwortschatztest' (MWT, multiple choice verbal comprehension test). RESULTS: The schizophrenic group was impaired relative to controls on the theory of mind task, but not on the sequencing task of the nonsocial picture story. However, when controlled for IQ, no such difference was found. These findings were neither related to severity, duration, nor age at onset of the disorder. CONCLUSIONS: Theory of mind deficits in schizophrenia may be related to domain general impairments, e.g., intelligence and working memory load, rather than reflecting a 'genuine' compromised mental state attribution similar to autistic spectrum disorders. Schizophrenic patients may, however, rather be impaired in how and when to apply strategic social reasoning. Further studies to investigate the nature of social deficiency in schizophrenia are warranted.

Adult↗
PubMed2003

Erotomanic stalking in evolutionary perspective.

Erotomania, the delusion of being loved by another person, comprises marked sex differences concerning prevalence rates and behavior. Whereas traditional psychiatry has considered erotomania to be almost entirely restricted to women, recent studies have revealed that criminal offenses associated with the condition occur much more frequently in men. The main hypothesis of this article is that these findings may be explained in terms of evolutionary theory. Erotomania, accordingly, may be viewed as a pathological variant of a specific sexual strategy that evolved under selection pressures of the human environment of evolutionary adaptedness. The overt behavior is related to the pursuit of long-term mating, its potentially beneficial effect on inclusive fitness of the individual, and disparate strategies of the sexes to ensure sexual fidelity of the potential partner. Therefore, the evolutionary approach provides a plausible explanation as to why forensically relevant erotomania prevails in men. The pathological process of delusional misinterpretation of perceived signals from the social environment itself may result from poor reality testing due to a failure of social meta-cognition. The evolutionary perspective may provide additional insights into the nature of sex-specific behaviors and may improve our understanding of forensically relevant behaviors.

Delusions↗
PubMed2003

Erotomania variants in dementia.

Erotomania is a delusional syndrome in which an affected individual is convinced that another person loves him or her. Erotomania usually occurs in middle-aged female patients. Only 3 cases have been described in dementia so far. The authors report 2 cases, in Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia, in which erotomania emerged in the early stage of the underlying disorder. In both cases, erotomania partially responded to antipsychotic treatment. Erotomania may be understood in evolutionary terms as a pathologic deviation of an evolved psychological mechanism relating to mate selection and may therefore account for the typical sex distribution of the syndrome in favor of women and the onset of the disorder, usually during the late reproductive phase. The association of erotomania with dementing disorders may tentatively be interpreted to suggest that such complex psychological mechanisms and behaviors as involved here in "organic" delusions may have distinct, "hard-wired" representations in the human brain.

Aged↗
PubMed2002

Toward an integration of interpersonal and biological processes: evolutionary psychiatry as an empirically testable framework for psychiatric research.

Phenomenological, biological, and interpersonal aspects of psychiatric disorders lack an integrative empirical framework. In this paper evolutionary psychiatry is proposed as a meta-theory to integrate biological and interpersonal aspects of psychopathology. Pathological cognition, emotions, and behaviors may be examined according to specific biosocial goals originally pursued to increase the individual's inclusive fitness, similar to the ways that "normal" processes have been analyzed by evolutionary psychology. Sex-specific differences in prevalence rates and symptomatology of psychiatric disorders may also be better understood if divergent problems of adaptation for men and women in human evolutionary history are taken into account. Instead of mistaking the evolutionary approach for being deterministic and empirically untestable, it may rather be appropriate to provide a functional classification which adds to the contemporary psychiatric nosology through analysis according to specific conflicts of adaptation (at the ultimate level), the pursuit of biosocial goals, and proximate specifiers such as genetic, developmental, and interpersonal causes of disorders.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed2002

Obsessive compulsive disorder in huntington disease: a case of isolated obsessions successfully treated with sertraline.

OBJECTIVE: To report about a patient with Huntington disease (HD) in combination with obsessions who was successfully treated with a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor. BACKGROUND: Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) has rarely been reported in association with HD, and little is known about the treatment of patients with OCD symptoms and HD. METHODS: We describe a 42-year-old woman who experienced isolated obsessive thoughts about killing her neighbor 10 years after the onset of her genetically confirmed HD. RESULTS: Sertraline was prescribed at a daily dose of 150 mg with a complete remission of obsessive ideas within 4 weeks of treatment. CONCLUSIONS: The basal ganglia are known to play an important role in the pathogenesis of OCD and HD. Thus, it is conceivable that a degeneration of the caudate nucleus as in HD may also account for obsessive and compulsive symptoms in this disorder. To our knowledge, this is the first report about a patient with HD in combination with obsessions alone who was successfully treated with a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor. However, the association of OCD with HD warrants further systematic evaluation.

Adult↗