ABSTRACT
Based on the neuropsychological and imagenological evaluation of a frontal damaged patient with a somatoform disorder, we study the differential diagnosis of this condition compared to that of other patients: temporal or parietal damaged ones, schizophrenics, melancholics, obsessives, hypochondriacs and dismorphophobics.
Subject(s)
Somatoform Disorders/etiology , Adolescent , Depressive Disorder/diagnosis , Diagnosis, Differential , Humans , Hypochondriasis/diagnosis , Male , Obsessive Behavior/diagnosis , Schizophrenia/diagnosis , Somatoform Disorders/diagnosisABSTRACT
We tested the degree of dyslogia in the narrative of ten schizophrenic non-medicated outpatients while they narrated emotionally-loaded or neutral facts. The "emotional narratives" were much more dyslogic than the "neutral narratives". In order to explain these facts we evoke: 1. A fronto-temporo-limbic connection dysfunction would disturb an adequate cognitive treatment of emotions that would be, in this way, highly disruptive over logical processes. 2. A working memory/supervisory attentional system dysfunction that would produce both a loss of the normal connections among the fragments of speech and a lack of global strategical planning of the thought.
Subject(s)
Cognition Disorders/diagnosis , Emotions , Schizophrenia/physiopathology , Schizophrenic Psychology , Speech , Adolescent , Adult , Cognition Disorders/etiology , Humans , Male , Neuropsychological Tests , Schizophrenia/complicationsABSTRACT
Based on observations in five patients, we review the main theories concerning dreams and propose a comprehensive theory on their cognitive function. We classify dreams based on the role performed by them in inhibition, stimulation or creation of cognitive strategies around an emotional nucleus. These are stored in the memory bank and retrieved by an elicitation mechanism linking affective experiences on awareness and the strategies processed in previous dreams. We also propose that the changes in logical and emotional patterns in dreams are based on fronto-limbic dominance oscillations during each REM period. Preliminary observations we made show that awakening patients during most rapid frontal EEG activity REM sleep elicits more logical and less bizarre dreams. Contrariwise, when they are awakened during slower REM cortical EEG activity, mainly over the frontal lobes, their dreams are more bizarre and consequently less elaborated from a cognitive point of view.
Subject(s)
Dreams/psychology , Sleep, REM/physiology , Electroencephalography , HumansABSTRACT
Dependence and withdraw syndromes related with tobacco are mentioned. Clinical forms and types associated to tabagism considered are: psychopathic, borderline, neurotic, narcisic, psychotic, depressive, hedonic, and bulimic. Psychopathological and etiopathogenic factors of tabagism are listed.
