Neurocognition applied to psychotherapy: A brief theoretical proposal based on the complex neural network perspective.

Abstract

Impairments on executive functions, attention, memory, and self-perception had been systematically associated and document across several psychological disorders. Individuals with anxiety, depression, and schizophrenia spectrum disorders tend to manifest difficulties in response modulation/inhibition, cognitive flexibility, selective attention, updating autobiographical memory patterns, and maintenance in the sense of self and boundaries of others. Difficulties in cognitive, emotional, behavioral, and interpersonal functions in intrapsychic and interpsychic mental domains may be theoretically related to the maladaptive functioning of several neural networks. Frontal-Parietal Executive Network (FPEN), Salience Network (SN), Amygdaloid-Hippocampal Memory Network (AHMN), and Default Mode-Network (DMN) are four major complex neural pathways associated with these neurocognitive processes, sharing some neuroanatomical elements. These shared elements may support a latent factor that accounts for the common neurocognitive symptomatology across several psychopathological conditions. Based on these preliminary observations a new theoretical neurocognitive syndrome is hypothesized, potentially a productive target for clinical case conceptualization. Several articulations bettween neurocognition and psychotherapy are discussed and a new assessment measure is proposed.