Department of Medicine and Surgery, Psychiatric Unit, University of Parma, Parma, Italy.
Department of Mental Health, Local Health Service, Parma, Italy.
Schizophr Bull. 2023 Jan 3;49(1):161-171. doi: 10.1093/schbul/sbac146.
Different hypotheses have flourished to explain the evolutionary paradox of schizophrenia. In this contribution, we sought to illustrate how, in the schizophrenia spectrum, the concept of embodiment may underpin the phylogenetic and developmental pathways linking sensorimotor processes, the origin of human language, and the construction of a basic sense of the self. In particular, according to an embodied model of language, we suggest that the reuse of basic sensorimotor loops for language, while enabling the development of fully symbolic thought, has pushed the human brain close to the threshold of a severe disruption of self-embodiment processes, which are at the core of schizophrenia psychopathology. We adopted an inter-disciplinary approach (psychopathology, neuroscience, developmental biology) within an evolutionary framework, to gain an integrated, multi-perspectival model on the origin of schizophrenia vulnerability. A maladaptive over-expression of evolutionary-developmental trajectories toward language at the expense of embodiment processes would have led to the evolutionary "trade-off" of a hyper-symbolic activity to the detriment of a disembodied self. Therefore, schizophrenia psychopathology might be the cost of long-term co-evolutive interactions between brain and language.
不同的假说层出不穷，试图解释精神分裂症的进化悖论。在本研究中，我们旨在阐明在精神分裂症谱系中，具身认知的概念如何能够为连接感觉运动过程、人类语言起源和自我基本意识构建的种系发生和发展途径提供依据。具体而言，根据语言的具身认知模型，我们提出，语言对基本感觉运动回路的重复使用，虽然能够促进完全符号思维的发展，但也使人类大脑接近自我具身认知过程严重中断的临界点，而这正是精神分裂症病理的核心。我们在进化框架内采用跨学科方法（精神病理学、神经科学、发展生物学），以获得关于精神分裂症易感性起源的综合、多视角模型。以牺牲具身认知过程为代价，过度表达向语言进化发展的轨迹，可能导致过度符号化活动的进化“权衡”，而牺牲非具身自我。因此，精神分裂症病理可能是大脑和语言之间长期共同进化相互作用的代价。
