Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-vdxz6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-01T03:59:06.907Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Model of Brain Function: Its Implications for Psychiatric Research

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Bruce E. Wexler
Bruce E. Wexler*
Affiliation:
Yale University School of Medicine
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Much current research in psychiatry proceeds in the absence of an integrated model of brain function. It is based instead on the effort to relate clinical syndromes to single, localised abnormalities in the brain. Such an approach is inconsistent with existing data, inadequate for linking research findings with clinical practice, and, probably, fundamentally misdirected. A model of brain function is presented that is based on Luria's notion of cerebral functional systems and on the proposition that the neural substrates of emotion are those processes that integrate different brain regions. Some of the implications of this model for research are discussed.

Type
Annotation
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 148 , Issue 4 , April 1986 , pp. 357 - 362
Copyright
Copyright © 1986 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bruder, G., Sutton, S., Berger-Gross, P., et al (1981) Lateralized auditory processing in depression: Dichotic click detection. Psychiatry Research, 4, 255–266.Google Scholar
Buchsbaum, M. S., Ingvar, O. H., Kessler, R. et al (1982) Cerebral glucography with positron tomography. Archives of General Psychiatry, 30, 251–259.Google Scholar
Carr, S. A. (1980) Interhemispheric transfer of stereognostic information in chronic schizophrenics. British Journal of Psychiatry, 136, 53–58.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
d'Elia, G. & Perris, C. (1973) Cerebral functional dominance and depression. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 49, 191–197.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dimond, S. J. & Scammell, R. (1980) Some failures of intermanual and cross-lateral transfer in chronic schizophrenia. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 89, 505–509.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Flor-Henry, P. (1979) On certain aspects of the localization of the cerebral systems regulating and determining emotion. Biological Psychiatry, 14, 677–698.Google Scholar
Foucault, M. (1973) The Birth of the Clinic. New York, Panthean Books.Google Scholar
Franzen, G. & Ingvar, D. H. (1975) Abnormal distribution of cerebral activity in chronic schizophrenia. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 12, 199–214.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Green, P. (1978) Defective interhemispheric transfer in schizophrenia. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 87, 472–480.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gruzelier, J. H. (1983) A critical assessment and integration of lateral asymmetries in schizophrenia. In Hemisyndromes (ed. Myslobodsky, M.). London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Johnson, O. & Crockett, O. (1982) Changes in perceptual asymmetries with clinical improvement of depression and schizophrenia. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 91, 45–54.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kinsbourne, M. & Cook, J. (1971) Generalized and lateralized effect of concurrent verbalization on a unimanual skill. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 23, 341–345.Google Scholar
Kinsbourne, M. & Hicks, R. E. (1978) Mapping cerebral functional space. In The Asymmetrical Function of the Brain (ed.) Kinsbourne, M. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Luchins, D. J., Weinberger, D. R. & Wyatt, R. J. (1982) Schizophrenia and cerebral asymmetry detected by computed tomography. American Journal of Psychiatry, 139, 753–757.Google Scholar
Luria, A. R. (1973) The Working Brain. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Merrin, E. L. (1982) Clinical characterization of schizophrenic patients and cerebral asymmetry: Review and hypothesis. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 23, 55–67.Google Scholar
Newlin, D. B., Carpenter, B. & Golden, C. J. (1981) Hemispheric asymmetries in schizophrenia. Biological Psychiatry, 16, 561–582.Google Scholar
Perris, C. (1975) EEG techniques in the measurement of the severity of depressive syndromes. Neuropsychobiology, 1, 16–25.Google Scholar
Riederer, J. (1981) Lateralite cerebrale et troubles psychiques. Revue Medicale de la Suisse Romande, 101(7), 555–563.Google Scholar
Rosenthal, R. & Bigelow, L. B. (1972) Quantitative brain measurements in chronic schizophrenia. British Journal of Psychiatry, 121, 259–264.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wexler, B. E. (1980) Cerebral laterality and psychiatry: A review of the literature. American Journal of Psychiatry, 137, 279–291.Google Scholar
Wexler, B. E. & Heninger, G. R. (1979) Alterations in cerebral laterality in acute psychotic illness. Archives of General Psychiatry, 36, 278–284.Google Scholar
Wexler, B. E. & Halwes, T. (1985) Dichotic listening tests in studying brain-behaviour relationships. Neuropsychology, 23, 545–559 Google Scholar
Wexler, B. E. et al (In press) Effects of emotion on perceptual asymmetry: Interaction with personality. Neuropsychologia.Google Scholar
Yozawitz, A., Bruder, G., Sutton, S., et al. (1979) Dichotic perception: evidence for right hemisphere dysfunction in affective psychosis. British Journal of Psychiatry, 135, 224–237.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.