Depersonalization Disorder: A Functional Neuroanatomical Perspective
Open accessAbstract
Clinical reports of depersonalization suggest that attenuated emotional experience is a central feature of the condition. Patients typically complain of emotional numbness and some patients ascribe their feelings of unreality to a lack of affective "colouring" in things perceived. Recent neuroimaging and psychophysiological studies support these assumptions as they show both attenuated autonomic responses in depersonalization, and decreased activity within neural regions important for the generation of affective responses to emotive stimuli. Furthermore, findings from neuroimaging studies indicate increased prefrontal cortical activity in depersonalised patients, particularly within regions associated with contextualization and appraisal of emotionally-salient information rather than mood induction per se. Taken together, these finding suggest that symptoms of depersonalization, and in particular emotional numbing, may be related to a reversal of normal patterns of autonomic and neural response to emotive stimuli.
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States of detachment may be associated with reduced reactivity in the amygdala.
“States of detachment (e.g., numbing) may thus be associated with reduced reactivity in this area [70].”
From Dissociation and Alterations in Brain Function and Structure: Implications for Borderline Personality Disorder (2017) · cites this paper as [70]
The sections “Emotional Numbing in Depersonalization” and “Towards an Understanding of the Functional Neuroanatomical Basis of Depersonalization” describe blunted emotional responses and reduced insula activation to aversive scenes in depersonalized patients. They do not establish reduced amygdala reactivity in detachment states; the claim specifies a brain region the reported finding does not support. No page numbers are available in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.83)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredMineness can be lost locally, for aspects of bodily functioning, such as pain.
“What this shows is that “mineness” can be lost locally, for aspects of bodily functioning, such as pain (Phillips et al., 2001; Phillips and Sierra, 2003; Medford et al., 2006; Simeon and Abugel, 2006; Simeon et al., 2008; Stein and Simeon, 2009; Sierra et al., 2012; Michal et al., 2013; Sedeño et al., 2014; Medford et al., 2016; Gogolla, 2017; Gerrans, 2019).”
From Pain Asymbolia as Depersonalization for Pain Experience. An Interoceptive Active Inference Account (2020) · cites this paper as Phillips and Sierra, 2003
The DEPERSONALIZATION section describes somatosensory distortions and a feeling that one's body does not belong to oneself, supporting a loss of bodily ‘mineness.’ The paper's passages about pain concern its neural processing, not a loss of ownership specifically for pain, so that example is not supported by this source. (LLM, conf=0.84)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
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Sorted by citations
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Pain Asymbolia as Depersonalization for Pain Experience. An Interoceptive Active Inference Account
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- Authors
- Phillips, M. L., & Sierra, M.
- Affiliations
- King's College London (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Phillips, Mary L.
- ORCID
- Phillips, Mary L.
- Venue
- Stress
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2003-01
- Volume
- 6
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 157-165
- ISSN
- 1025-3890 (ISSN-L)
- 1607-8888
- OpenAlex
- W1971502526
- Cited by
- 62
- References
- 25
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 5 · 2016: 5 · 2015: 1 · 2014: 5 · 2013: 1 · 2012: 3
- FWCI
- 0.36
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Stress (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- ORCA Online Research @Cardiff (Cardiff University) (submittedVersion)
- Research Portal (King's College London) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Psychosomatic Disorders and Their Treatments
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Surgery › Cardiovascular Syncope and Autonomic Disorders
- Keywords
- depersonalization disorder, emotional numbing, autonomic responses, prefrontal cortex, contextualization, neuroimaging findings
- MeSH terms
- Affect, Brain, Depersonalization, Humans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Tomography, Emission-Computed, Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon
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