Читать книгу Abnormal Psychology - William J. Ray - Страница 10

As we entered the twenty-first century, questions of importance to psychology were being embraced by the neurosciences. This allowed for both richness and an integration of scientific information concerning important psychological questions. In the past 25 years, we have seen a shift in focus that has included the “Decade of the Brain” of the 1990s as well as a real emergence of the cognitive and affective neurosciences. A number of scientists have also begun to ask how neuroscience approaches can influence psychopathology and inform the diagnosis of different types of mental disorders.

Recent developments in brain imaging have provided important perspectives on psychopathological processes. These developments include functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), electroencephalography (EEG), and magnetoencephalography (MEG), and their basics should be understood by students seeking an overview of psychopathology. The perspectives based on these brain imaging techniques are beginning to emphasize the manner in which underlying cortical networks may reflect particular changes in psychopathological conditions and give us a better understanding of the manner in which normal social and emotional processes may become dysfunctional. For example, we know that there are a variety of basic networks in the brain, some of which are involved in internal processes such as mind wandering when there is no external stimulation, and others that become activated when interaction with the external world is required. A number of researchers have sought to articulate how these so-called default networks as well as other networks are associated with psychopathology. Other researchers have focused on emotional circuits that are either under- or overactivated in particular psychopathologies. One aspect of this emotional expression is the role it has played in our survival, mating, and social relationships from throughout our history. This brings us to the value of an evolutionary perspective.