European Workshop on Cognitive Neuropsychology 2017 36-Emotions and social cognition#8 Beyond language and Memory, Interoception and semantic Knowledge: Bridging phenomenology and neuroscience Diana Matallana, Agustín Ibáñez, Hernando Santamaría-García, Pablo Reyes, Jorge Dávila, Ángela Martinez, Nathalia Rodriguez, Sandra Baez and Louis Sass. First author address: Javeriana University , Bogota, Colombia. First author email:
[email protected]
Introduction : In the age of an ongoing dominance of neuroscience, phenomenology could add an interceding
element between neurological evidence and subjective experience. Phenomenology could add an interceding element between neurological evidence and subjective experience. An altered self-experience in patients with semantic amnesia (SA) due to a Semantic Dementia (SD) or Traumatic Brain Injury (SA-TBI), provides a critical examination of some experiential changes in certain domains of selfhood.
Methods: We studied SD and SA-TBI patients who shared clinical features: impairments in generalize knowledge and emotional meaning. Patients (10 SD; 10 SA-TBI) were clinically assessed (neurological, psychiatric and neuropsychological) and compared to healthy controls regarding their clinical profile and brain images (voxel based morphometry, VBM, and diffusion tensor imaging, DTI) at the Aging Institute of the Universidad Javeriana in Colombia (IAPUJ). All subjects completed a high resolution (1mm isotropic) T1-weighted MRI scan processed using a state-of-the-art pipeline implemented in Advanced Normalization Tools (ANTs). Phenomenological categories were extracted following the Examination of Anomalous Self-Experience (EASE Parnas, 2005).
Results: Results revealed impairment of body image, awareness, and self/non-self distinction. Own face prosopagnosia, as well as impairments in pain/temperature threshold, hungry identification, proprioception and mental time travel were also observed in both groups of patients. Reduced volume (VBM) of the right insula (RI, a central hub for brain interoceptive networks) predicted the semantic/interoceptive deficits. Also, altered structural connectivity (DTI) between RI and (a) anterior temporal lobe, and (b) the posterior temporal lobe was observed in both AS-TBII and SD patients, compared to controls. Notably, these last structures are main regions for processing abstract and semantic knowledge, respectively.
Discussion:From the cognitive neuroscience mainstream, interoception and semantic knowledge are considered two different processes. Nevertheless, they are not independent from a phenomenological perspective: The meaningful comprehension of the world and their related polysemy are interdependent on the phenomenological experience of a corporeal and sentient self. Results emphasize the relevance for (a) opening new areas for clinical assessment and (b) developing a dialogue between clinical phenomenology and cognitive neuroscience.
References: Yoris A, et al. Behav Brain Funct. 2015 Apr 8;11:14. Sedeño et.al. PLoS One. 2014 Jun 26;9(6) Savage et al. J Alzheimers Dis. 2015;46(1):187-98.
Keywords: Emotions and social cognition; patients; group study; adults; FTD and TBI with semantic amnesia; DTI and Semantic Knowledge, behavioural.
Bressanone, 22-27 January 2017
