Phenomenology and neurobiology of self disorder in schizophrenia: Secondary factors.
Schizophrenia Research December 1, 2015 DOI: 10.1016/j.schres.2015.09.025 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Philosophy of mind |
| Keywords | Neurocognitive-models Psychosis Schizophrenia Self-disorder |
| Citations | 44 |
| Key points | Proposes that secondary phenomenological alterations in schizophrenia—hyperreflexivity, diminished self-presence, and disturbed cognitive/perceptual field awareness—are downstream consequences of primary perceptual dys-integration and may explain clinical diversity. |
Abstract
Schizophrenia is a diverse and varying syndrome that defies most attempts at classification and pathogenetic explanation. This is the second of two articles offering a comprehensive model meant to integrate an understanding of schizophrenia-related forms of subjectivity, especially anomalous core-self experience (disturbed ipseity), with neurocognitive and neurodevelopmental findings. Previously we discussed the primary or foundational role of disturbed intermodal perceptional integration ("perceptual dys-integration"). Here we discuss phenomenological alterations that can be considered secondary in a pathogenetic sense--whether as consequential products downstream from a more originary disruption, or as defensive reactions involving quasi-intentional or even volitional compensations to the more primary disruptions. These include secondary forms of: 1, hyperreflexivity, 2, diminished self-presence (self-affection), and 3. disturbed "rip" or "hold" on the cognitive/perceptual field of awareness. We consider complementary relations between these secondary abnormal experiences while also considering their temporal relationships and pathogenetic intertwining with the more primary phenomenological alterations discussed previously, all in relation to the neurodevelopmental model. The secondary phenomena can be understood as highly variable factors involving overall orientations or attitudes toward experience; they have some affinities with experiences of meditation, introspectionism, and depersonalization defense. Also, they seem likely to become more pronounced during adolescence as a result of new cognitive capacities related to development of the prefrontal lobes, especially attention allocation, executive functions, abstraction, and meta-awareness. Heterogeneity in these secondary alterations might help explain much of the clinical diversity in schizophrenia, both between patients and within individual patients over time--without however losing sight of key underlying commonalities.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on philosophy of mind, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Psychosis as a state of aberrant salience: a framework linking biology, phenomenology, and pharmacology in schizophrenia. | 2003 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| From dopamine to salience to psychosis--linking biology, pharmacology and phenomenology of psychosis. | 2005 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| How do the brain's time and space mediate consciousness and its different dimensions? Temporo-spatial theory of consciousness (TTC). | 2017 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| The phenomenology of deep brain stimulation-induced changes in OCD: an enactive affordance-based model. | 2013 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Looking for the Self: Phenomenology, Neurophysiology and Philosophical Significance of Drug-induced Ego Dissolution | 2017 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |
Citations in the library
Cited by 13
- The neurophenomenology of early psychosis: An integrative empirical study. Consciousness and Cognition November 1, 2019
- Towards integrating phenomenology and neurocognition: Possible neurocognitive correlates of basic self-disturbance in schizophrenia Current Problems of Psychiatry September 1, 2017
- Ontogenesis of self-disorders in the schizophrenia spectrum: A phenomenological neuro-developmental model. Schizophrenia Research October 1, 2024
- "Schizophrenia, Consciousness, and the Self" Twenty Years Later: Revisiting the Ipseity-Disturbance Model and the Developmental Nature of Self-Disorder in the Schizophrenia Spectrum. Schizophrenia Bulletin May 25, 2025
- [Spatiotemporal psychopathology-German version of the Scale for Space and Time Experience in Psychosis (STEP) : A validated measurement instrument for the assessment of spatial and temporal experience in psychotic disorders]. Der Nervenarzt September 1, 2023
and 8 more in the library
Cites 20
- Psychosis as a state of aberrant salience: a framework linking biology, phenomenology, and pharmacology in schizophrenia. American Journal of Psychiatry 2003
- Default Mode Network Activity and Connectivity in Psychopathology Annual Review of Clinical Psychology March 29, 2012
- Self-disturbance and schizophrenia: structure, specificity, pathogenesis (Current issues, New directions). Schizophrenia Research 2014
- The Neurodynamic Organization of Modality-Dependent Hallucinations Cerebral Cortex April 24, 2012
- Anomalous self-experience in depersonalization and schizophrenia: a comparative investigation. Consciousness and Cognition June 1, 2013
and 15 more in the library