Dissociation and other trauma symptomatology are linked to imbalance in the competing neurobehavioral decision systems.
Frontiers in psychology January 1, 2023 Julia C Basso, Medha K Satyal, Kevin L Mckee et al. 5 citations
Depersonalization and trauma symptoms are linked to heightened impulsivity, increased risk-seeking, impaired emotional states, and a history of traumatic experiences. Using the Competing Neurobehavioral Decisions System theory, the study modeled survey and task data from 557 English-speaking U.S. adults. Results show that an imbalance favoring impulsive over executive systems—marked by lower valuation of future rewards, greater risk-seeking, and worse affective states—predicts more severe depersonalization and PTSD symptoms. This is the first evidence connecting dissociation to delay discounting, the tendency to prefer immediate over delayed rewards. Interventions such as episodic future thinking or mindfulness meditation may help reduce dissociative symptoms.