Persecutory delusions: reminiscence of ancestral hostile threats?

Zolotova, Julia; Brüne, Martin

doi:10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2005.08.001

Cited by 11 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…A large proportion of positive symptoms, such as delusions and hallucinations, relate to the theme of threat, which in the ancestral environment would have been likely to have had its origin external to the group. Persecutory delusions in males were found in one particular study to relate mostly to gangs of male strangers (Zolotova & Brüne, 2006), which is consistent with OIH. Also, it is of particular interest that the vast majority of auditory hallucinations are of male voices (Nayani & David, 1996).…”

Section: The Therapeutic Effect Of Oxytocin In Schizophreniasupporting

confidence: 65%

Can the new epidemiology of schizophrenia help elucidate its causation?

Abed¹,

Abbas

2014

Ir. j. psychol. Med.

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The supposed universality of the incidence and prevalence of schizophrenia has been seriously challenged. It is now widely accepted that the life-time prevalence and incidence of this disorder vary considerably in time and place. As a result, there has been renewed interest in environmental causation of schizophrenia. There are few extant formulations that have successfully integrated the available new evidence into a coherent theory for its causation. The outgroup intolerance hypothesis is an attempt to integrate this evidence. It proposes that schizophrenia is the result of a mismatch between the social brain as shaped by evolution and the new social conditions of the post-neolithic. The hypothesis can provide an explanation for (i) the higher risk to migrants, (ii) the ethnic density phenomenon, (iii) the increased risk to individuals who have grown up in cities and (iv) the putative low risk in hunter-gatherer societies. Evidence is presented from a range of disciplines and sources including epidemiology, psychopathology, social psychology and clinical trials in support of this hypothesis. A range of testable predictions follow from the hypothesis.

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Section: The Therapeutic Effect Of Oxytocin In Schizophreniasupporting

confidence: 65%

Can the new epidemiology of schizophrenia help elucidate its causation?

Abed¹,

Abbas

2014

Ir. j. psychol. Med.

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“…This theory would account for the aforementioned biases toward threat, specifically toward aggressive intentions from others, especially if they belong to different groups. Other studies [144,145] have also found this selective bias towards aggression coming from strangers, specifically in men. Moreover, a bias towards overinferring that food is contaminated has also been found.…”

Section: Theories On Delusionsmentioning

confidence: 96%

Neuropsychological Research in Delusional Disorder: A Comprehensive Review

Ibanez-Casas

Cervilla

2012

Psychopathology

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In recent decades, there has been a growing interest in the field of delusions, and different aspects of delusional disorder (DD) have been investigated. However, DD is still one of the most underresearched psychiatric disorders. In this paper, we review the literature on DD and most of the theoretical approaches proposed to explain the development and maintenance of delusions. DD research is infrequent, and delusions in this disorder have been scarcely investigated. We aim to establish the state of the art of delusions research to date and point to the shortage of neuropsychological studies in patients with DD. We also justify the need for future research into the neuropsychological correlates of DD as measured in patients with this disorder given that most previous research has mainly focused on other psychotic conditions.

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“…I should mention that the items that women hoard when engaged in a compulsive buying binge typically relate to beauty-enhancing products, hence the evolutionary-based mechanisms are apparent in this case (Saad, in press b). Evolutionarily-congruent findings/explanations have been obtained/proposed for a wide range of psychiatric and medical disorders including De Clé rambault's syndrome (Brü ne 2001; Brü ne & Schrö der 2003), erectile dysfunction (Cellerino & Jannini 2005;Gofrit 2006), perfectionism (Dunn et al 2005), envy (Habimana & Massé 2000;Saad & Gill 2005), social stress (Troisi 2001), sexual disorders (Troisi 2003), persecutory delusions (Walston et al 1998;Zolotova & Brü ne 2006), depression (Mackey & Immerman 2000), body dysmorphic disorder (Phillips et al 2006), and suicide (Saad, in press a). Generally speaking, key triggers of envy, suicide, perfectionism, social stress, body dismorphic disorder, erotomania, and persecutory delusions assort along sex-specific lines precisely because many evolutionary threats are differentially important to the two sexes.…”

Section: Gad Saadmentioning

confidence: 99%

Why ritualized behavior? Precaution Systems and action parsing in developmental, pathological and cultural rituals

2006

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Ritualized behavior, intuitively recognizable by its stereotypy, rigidity, repetition, and apparent lack of rational motivation, is found in a variety of life conditions, customs, and everyday practices: in cultural rituals, whether religious or non-religious; in many children's complicated routines; in the pathology of obsessive-compulsive disorders (OCD); in normal adults around certain stages of the life-cycle, birthing in particular. Combining evidence from evolutionary anthropology, neuropsychology and neuroimaging, we propose an explanation of ritualized behavior in terms of an evolved Precaution System geared to the detection of and reaction to inferred threats to fitness. This system, distinct from fear-systems geared to respond to manifest danger, includes a repertoire of clues for potential danger as well as a repertoire of species-typical precautions. In OCD pathology, this system does not supply a negative feedback to the appraisal of potential threats, resulting in doubts about the proper performance of precautions, and repetition of action. Also, anxiety levels focus the attention on low-level gestural units of behavior rather than on the goal-related higher-level units normally used in parsing the action-flow. Normally automatized actions are submitted to cognitive control. This “swamps” working memory, an effect of which is a temporary relief from intrusions but also their long-term strengthening. Normal activation of this Precaution System explains intrusions and ritual behaviors in normal adults. Gradual calibration of the system occurs through childhood rituals. Cultural mimicry of this system's normal input makes cultural rituals attention-grabbing and compelling. A number of empirical predictions follow from this synthetic model.

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Persecutory delusions: reminiscence of ancestral hostile threats?

Cited by 11 publications

References 9 publications

Can the new epidemiology of schizophrenia help elucidate its causation?

Can the new epidemiology of schizophrenia help elucidate its causation?

Neuropsychological Research in Delusional Disorder: A Comprehensive Review

Why ritualized behavior? Precaution Systems and action parsing in developmental, pathological and cultural rituals

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