Transdiagnostic conceptualization of schizophrenia and autism spectrum disorder. An integrative framework of minimal self disturbance
Ágota Vass, Gábor Csukly, Kinga Farkas
preprint DOI: 10.31234/osf.io/vfuzh
Summary
Autism spectrum disorder and schizophrenia share a distortion of minimal self experience, a trait-like phenomenological anomaly. A framework uniting neural, neurocognitive, and phenomenological levels is proposed to conceptualize this disturbance across diagnostic boundaries. To identify neural correlates of minimal selfhood, the authors argue that meditation, which increases present-focused inward attention and decreases reflective mind-wandering, provides a more reliable subtraction than a simple resting state. This aligns with efforts to find biomarkers of pathological functioning and move beyond operationalized nosology.
Study at a glance
| Design | theoretical or philosophical paper |
|---|---|
| Key finding | Minimal self disturbance is shared across autism spectrum disorder and schizophrenia, and meditation offers a more reliable paradigm for identifying its neural correlates than resting state. |
Abstract
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and schizophrenia (SCZ) are diagnostically demarcated disorders, yet overlapping pathological functioning is reported at several levels of organisation starting from brain circuitry to behaviour, complicating diagnostic differentiation. In particular, what the two disorders seem to share is anomalous minimal self experience, which is a trait-like, phenomenological distortion. We propose a framework that unites multiple levels from neural substrates to neurocognitive and phenomenological correlates for the conceptualisation of minimal self disturbance across diagnostic boundaries. As it is increasingly important to uncover biomarkers of psychopathological functioning, we also propose a new paradigm for identifying the neural correlates of minimal selfhood. We argue that they can be more reliably subtracted during meditation rather than during a simple resting state as meditation increases the present-focused inward attention, while simultaneously decreasing reflective mind-wandering that spontaneously happens during rest. Our endeavours are in line with the broader movement in psychiatry to identify biomarkers of pathological functioning and shift from operationalized nosology towards approaches that are not agnostic about self-experience in ASD and SCZ.