title: Personality disorders disturbances of the physical brain.
abstract: How can physical systems of the brain, explain a psychological phenomenon such as personality? Personality is an emergent property of the brain as such it requires interacting elements that generate a whole. Per definition a physical system is a compound whole made of interacting interdependent elements. The brain is composed of multiple levels of elements ranging from single neurons interconnected by axons dendrites and synapses, up to brain regions and neural network ensembles connected by multiple modalities, from direct physical pathways to synchronized functional connectivity. Today we know that the brain develops and wires according to the influences of its environment, this is called "experience dependent plasticity" and follows Hebbian-like algorithms. Such process "embeds" into the brain internal representations in the form of physical attractor configurations distributed within the brain neural-networks. Development entails formation of personal individual-specific network configurations found recently as resting-state networks or "default-mode networks." These internal configurations represent the outer world to us and determine the way we perceive it and react to it. In other words these internal configurations determine our personality styles. The internal representations continuously adapt to the changing worlds offering good adaptability and effective functionality in our changing environments. Personality disorders are reconceptualized in terms of altered disturbed mal-developed default-mode-networks, such that the internal representations are biased, limited, fixated and non-adaptive. In this context therapy of personality disorders can be reconceptualized as experience-depended plasticity therapy.
authors: Sha'ar Menashe Mental Health Center, Hadera, Israel. av_peled@netvision.net.il
authors: Avi
authors: A
authors: Peled
mesh_terms: D001921:Brain / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D008959:Models, Neurological; D008960:Models, Psychological; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000503:physiopathology; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity; D010554:Personality Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy; D011603:Psychophysiology