Mental Gravity: A novel theory of self, brain, mind and depression
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper |
|---|---|
| Topics | Depression |
| Key points | Argues that Mental Gravity is a simulation of increased physical gravity that underlies psychological states of being down, low, heavy, and slow, including depression. Proposes that intuitive physics of gravity acts as a mental "template" for social-emotional behaviour, with neural correlates in vestibular, salience, default mode, and central executive networks, and frames depression as severe Mental Gravity involving altered selfhood, seclusion, and distorted space and time. |
Abstract
The theory of Mental Gravity explains what it means to be psychologically “down” and how mental downness manifests in various aspects of cognition and behaviour, emotion and personality, the brain, phenomenology, and psychopathology. The theory contends that Mental Gravity is experienced as a simulation of (increased) physical gravity that communicates different mental states associated with being down, low, heavy, and slow, including when depressed. The simulation relates to core aspects of autobiographical memory, selfhood, and subjective space and time. The theory proposes that the intuitive physics of physical gravity (i.e., the “internal gravity model”) is used as a mental “template” for behaviours that communicate social or emotional gravity in particularly solemn, serious, or grave situations. Mental Gravity thus draws a behavioural analogy between the physical and social-emotional environments. At a deeper level, the theory also describes the underlying neural, cognitive, and phenomenological processes driving the mental simulation of physical gravity in terms of fundamental physics. Neural correlates are proposed in the vestibular, salience, default mode, and central executive networks. On the basis of default mode activity, the self is viewed as the brain’s cognitive “centre of mental gravity” constituting an accumulated “mass” of autobiographical memory. Phenomenologically, the theory uses gravity to model the interaction between the internal self and the external world. Depression represents severe Mental Gravity where persistently strong feelings of increased physical gravity are underscored by more drastic changes in the sense of self, seclusion from the world, and distorted subjective experience of space and time.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on depression, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for depression | 2006 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Psilocybin-assisted therapy of major depressive disorder using Acceptance and Commitment Therapy as a therapeutic frame | 2020 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| The Yale Manual for Psilocybin-Assisted Therapy of Depression (using Acceptance and Commitment Therapy as a Therapeutic Frame) | 2020 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Neuroinflammation and neuroprogression in depression: Effects of alternative drug treatments | 2022 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Improving cognitive functioning in major depressive disorder with psychedelics: A dimensional approach | 2021 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |
Citations in the library
Cites 15
- Interoceptive inference, emotion, and the embodied self Trends in Cognitive Sciences October 12, 2013
- Active interoceptive inference and the emotional brain Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences October 11, 2016
- The salience network is responsible for switching between the default mode network and the central executive network: Replication from DCM Neuroimage May 24, 2014
- Self unbound: ego dissolution in psychedelic experience Neuroscience of Consciousness 2017
- Abnormal Time Experiences in Major Depression: An Empirical Qualitative Study Psychopathology December 15, 2016
and 10 more in the library