Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/2440/22758
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Type: Journal article
Title: Mechanisms of madness: evolutionary psychiatry without evolutionary psychology
Author: Gerrans, P.
Citation: Biology and Philosophy, 2007; 22(1):35-56
Publisher: Kluwer Academic Publ
Issue Date: 2007
ISSN: 0169-3867
1572-8404
Statement of
Responsibility: 
P. Gerrans
Abstract: Delusions are currently characterised as false beliefs produced by incorrect inference about external reality (DSM IV). This inferential conception has proved hard to link to explanations pitched at the level of neurobiology and neuroanatomy. This paper provides that link via a neurocomputational theory, based on evolutionary considerations, of the role of the prefrontal cortex in regulating offline cognition. When pathologically neuromodulated the prefrontal cortex produces hypersalient experiences which monopolise offline cognition. The result is characteristic psychotic experiences and patterns of thought. This bottom-up account uses neural network theory to integrate recent theories of the role of dopamine in delusion with the insights of inferential accounts. It also provides a general model for evolutionary psychiatry which avoids theoretical problems imported from evolutionary psychology.
Keywords: Delusions
Dopamine
Evolutionary psychiatry
Mental time travel
Prefrontal cortex
Neural networks
DOI: 10.1007/s10539-006-9025-y
Published version: http://www.springerlink.com/content/g38121m9586g7l56/
Appears in Collections:Anthropology & Development Studies publications
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