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Rządeczka M, Wodziński M, Moskalewicz M. Cognitive biases as an adaptive strategy in autism and schizophrenia spectrum: the compensation perspective on neurodiversity. Front Psychiatry 2023; 14:1291854. [PMID: 38116384 PMCID: PMC10729319 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1291854] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/10/2023] [Accepted: 11/13/2023] [Indexed: 12/21/2023] Open
Abstract
This article presents a novel theoretical perspective on the role of cognitive biases within the autism and schizophrenia spectrum by integrating the evolutionary and computational approaches. Against the background of neurodiversity, cognitive biases are presented as primary adaptive strategies, while the compensation of their shortcomings is a potential cognitive advantage. The article delineates how certain subtypes of autism represent a unique cognitive strategy to manage cognitive biases at the expense of rapid and frugal heuristics. In contrast, certain subtypes of schizophrenia emerge as distinctive cognitive strategies devised to navigate social interactions, albeit with a propensity for overdetecting intentional behaviors. In conclusion, the paper emphasizes that while extreme manifestations might appear non-functional, they are merely endpoints of a broader, primarily functional spectrum of cognitive strategies. The central argument hinges on the premise that cognitive biases in both autism and schizophrenia spectrums serve as compensatory mechanisms tailored for specific ecological niches.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marcin Rządeczka
- Institute of Philosophy, Maria Curie-Sklodowska University in Lublin, Lublin, Poland
- IDEAS NCBR, Warsaw, Poland
| | | | - Marcin Moskalewicz
- Institute of Philosophy, Maria Curie-Sklodowska University in Lublin, Lublin, Poland
- IDEAS NCBR, Warsaw, Poland
- Philosophy of Mental Health Unit, Department of Social Sciences and the Humanities, Poznan University of Medical Sciences, Poznań, Poland
- Phenomenological Psychopathology and Psychotherapy, Psychiatric Clinic, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany
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Rantala MJ, Luoto S, Borráz-León JI, Krams I. Schizophrenia: the new etiological synthesis. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2022; 142:104894. [PMID: 36181926 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2022.104894] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/02/2021] [Revised: 08/25/2022] [Accepted: 09/25/2022] [Indexed: 10/31/2022]
Abstract
Schizophrenia has been an evolutionary paradox: it has high heritability, but it is associated with decreased reproductive success. The causal genetic variants underlying schizophrenia are thought to be under weak negative selection. To unravel this paradox, many evolutionary explanations have been suggested for schizophrenia. We critically discuss the constellation of evolutionary hypotheses for schizophrenia, highlighting the lack of empirical support for most existing evolutionary hypotheses-with the exception of the relatively well supported evolutionary mismatch hypothesis. It posits that evolutionarily novel features of contemporary environments, such as chronic stress, low-grade systemic inflammation, and gut dysbiosis, increase susceptibility to schizophrenia. Environmental factors such as microbial infections (e.g., Toxoplasma gondii) can better predict the onset of schizophrenia than polygenic risk scores. However, researchers have not been able to explain why only a small minority of infected people develop schizophrenia. The new etiological synthesis of schizophrenia indicates that an interaction between host genotype, microbe infection, and chronic stress causes schizophrenia, with neuroinflammation and gut dysbiosis mediating this etiological pathway. Instead of just alleviating symptoms with drugs, the parasite x genotype x stress model emphasizes that schizophrenia treatment should focus on detecting and treating possible underlying microbial infection(s), neuroinflammation, gut dysbiosis, and chronic stress.
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Affiliation(s)
- Markus J Rantala
- Department of Biology, University of Turku, FIN-20014 Turku, Finland.
| | - Severi Luoto
- School of Population Health, University of Auckland, 1023 Auckland, New Zealand
| | | | - Indrikis Krams
- Institute of Ecology and Earth Sciences, University of Tartu, 51014 Tartu, Estonia; Department of Zoology and Animal Ecology, Faculty of Biology, University of Latvia, 1004, Rīga, Latvia
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Hunt AD, Jaeggi AV. Specialised minds: extending adaptive explanations of personality to the evolution of psychopathology. EVOLUTIONARY HUMAN SCIENCES 2022; 4:e26. [PMID: 37588937 PMCID: PMC10426115 DOI: 10.1017/ehs.2022.23] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/07/2022] Open
Abstract
Traditional evolutionary theory invoked natural and sexual selection to explain species- and sex-typical traits. However, some heritable inter-individual variability in behaviour and psychology - personality - is probably adaptive. Here we extend this insight to common psychopathological traits. Reviewing key findings from three background areas of importance - theoretical models, non-human personality and evolved human social dynamics - we propose that a combination of social niche specialisation, negative frequency-dependency, balancing selection and adaptive developmental plasticity should explain adaptation for individual differences in psychology - 'specialised minds' - explaining some variance in personality and psychopathology trait dimensions, which share various characteristics. We suggest that anthropological research of behavioural differences should be extended past broad demographic factors (age and sex) to include individual specialisations. As a first step towards grounding psychopathology in ancestral social structure, we propose a minimum plausible prevalence, given likely ancestral group sizes, for negatively frequency-dependent phenotypes to be maintained as specialised tails of adaptive distributions - below the calculated prevalence, specialisation is highly unlikely. For instance, chronic highly debilitating forms of autism or schizophrenia are too rare for such explanations, whereas attention-deficit-hyperactivity disorder and broad autism phenotypes are common enough to have existed in most hunter-gatherer bands, making adaptive explanations more plausible.
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Affiliation(s)
- Adam D. Hunt
- Institute of Evolutionary Medicine, University of Zürich, Switzerland
| | - Adrian V. Jaeggi
- Institute of Evolutionary Medicine, University of Zürich, Switzerland
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Bender A. The Role of Culture and Evolution for Human Cognition. Top Cogn Sci 2019; 12:1403-1420. [DOI: 10.1111/tops.12449] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/30/2019] [Revised: 06/20/2019] [Accepted: 07/16/2019] [Indexed: 01/19/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Andrea Bender
- Department of Psychosocial Science & SFF Centre for Early Sapiens Behaviour (SapienCE), University of Bergen
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Abstract
AbstractThe target article advances several original concepts about shamanism, including prospective explanations for how shamanism could express itself in different cultural settings. Although the potential for “innate psychological tendencies” is acknowledged, the target article prematurely dismisses one such hard-wired feature of shamanism: psychosis.
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Abstract
AbstractSingh's cultural evolutionary theory of shamanism is impressive, but it does not explain why some people become shamans while others do not. We propose that individual differences in where people lie on a “psychosis continuum” could play an important causal role.
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Riordan DV. Mimetic Theory and the evolutionary paradox of schizophrenia: The archetypal scapegoat hypothesis. Med Hypotheses 2017; 108:101-107. [PMID: 29055381 DOI: 10.1016/j.mehy.2017.08.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/30/2017] [Revised: 07/23/2017] [Accepted: 08/07/2017] [Indexed: 01/22/2023]
Abstract
Schizophrenia poses an evolutionary paradox, being genetically mediated yet associated with reduced fecundity. Numerous hypotheses have attempted to address this, but few describe how the schizophrenic phenotype itself might constitute an evolutionary adaptation. This paper draws on René Girard's theory on human origins, which claims that humans evolved a tendency to mimic both the desires and the behaviours of each other (mimetic theory). This would have promoted social cohesion and co-operation, but at the cost of intra-group rivalry and conflict. The mimetic dynamic would have escalated such conflicts into reciprocal internecine violence, threatening the survival of the entire group. Girard theorised that the "scapegoat mechanism" emerged, by which means such violence was curtailed by the unanimity of "all against one", thus allowing the mimetic impulse to safely evolve further, making language and complex social behaviours possible. Whereas scapegoating may have emerged in the entire population, and any member of a community could be scapegoated if necessary, this paper proposes that the scapegoat mechanism would have worked better in groups containing members who exhibited traits, recognised by all others, which singled them out as victims. Schizophrenia may be a functional adaptation, similar in evolutionary terms to altruism, in that it may have increased inclusive fitness, by providing scapegoat victims, the choice of whom was likely to be agreed upon unanimously, even during internecine conflict, thus restoring order and protecting the group from self-destruction. This evolutionary hypothesis, uses Girardian anthropology to combine the concept of the schizophrenic as religious shaman with that of the schizophrenic as scapegoat. It may help to reconcile divergent philosophical concepts of mental illness, and also help us to better understand, and thus counter, social exclusion and stigmatisation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daniel Vincent Riordan
- West Cork Mental Health Services, HSE South, Bantry Hospital, Bantry, County Cork, Ireland.
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Apostolou M. An evolutionary account of the prevalence of personality traits that impair intimate relationships. PERSONALITY AND INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES 2016. [DOI: 10.1016/j.paid.2016.01.024] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/22/2022]
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Understanding the Prevalence of Sexual Dysfunctions in Women: an Evolutionary Perspective. ADAPTIVE HUMAN BEHAVIOR AND PHYSIOLOGY 2015. [DOI: 10.1007/s40750-015-0029-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/24/2022]
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Polimeni J, Reiss JP. Life History Theory's Best Chance: Illuminating Cluster B Personality Disorders. PSYCHOLOGICAL INQUIRY 2014. [DOI: 10.1080/1047840x.2014.911639] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/24/2022]
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van Dongen J, Boomsma DI. The evolutionary paradox and the missing heritability of schizophrenia. Am J Med Genet B Neuropsychiatr Genet 2013; 162B:122-36. [PMID: 23355297 DOI: 10.1002/ajmg.b.32135] [Citation(s) in RCA: 58] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/27/2012] [Accepted: 01/04/2013] [Indexed: 12/11/2022]
Abstract
Schizophrenia is one of the most detrimental common psychiatric disorders, occurring at a prevalence of approximately 1%, and characterized by increased mortality and reduced reproduction, especially in men. The heritability has been estimated around 70% and the genome-wide association meta-analyses conducted by the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium have been successful at identifying an increasing number of risk loci. Various theories have been proposed to explain why genetic variants that predispose to schizophrenia persist in the population, despite the fitness reduction in affected individuals, a question known as the evolutionary paradox. In this review, we consider evolutionary perspectives of schizophrenia and of the empirical evidence that may support these perspectives. Proposed evolutionary explanations include balancing selection, fitness trade-offs, fluctuating environments, sexual selection, mutation-selection balance and genomic conflicts. We address the expectations about the genetic architecture of schizophrenia that are predicted by different evolutionary scenarios and discuss the implications for genetic studies. Several potential sources of "missing" heritability, including gene-environment interactions, epigenetic variation, and rare genetic variation are examined from an evolutionary perspective. A better understanding of evolutionary history may provide valuable clues to the genetic architecture of schizophrenia and other psychiatric disorders, which is highly relevant to genetic studies that aim to detect genetic risk variants.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jenny van Dongen
- Department of Biological Psychology, VU University Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
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Abstract
In this article we propose that schizophrenia and religious cognition engage cognate mental modules in the over-attribution of agency and the overextension of theory of mind. We argue similarities and differences between assumptions of ultrahuman agents with omniscient minds and certain ''pathological'' forms of thinking in schizophrenia: thought insertion, withdrawal and broadcasting, and delusions of reference. In everyday religious cognition agency detection and theory of mind modules function ''normally,'' whereas in schizophrenia both modules are impaired. It is suggested that religion and schizophrenia have perhaps had a related evolutionary trajectory.
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Affiliation(s)
- Simon Dein
- Department of Mental Health Sciences, University College London, Charles Bell House, 67 Riding House Street, London WC1 7EY, UK.
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Pearlson GD, Folley BS. Schizophrenia, psychiatric genetics, and Darwinian psychiatry: an evolutionary framework. Schizophr Bull 2008; 34:722-33. [PMID: 18033774 PMCID: PMC2632450 DOI: 10.1093/schbul/sbm130] [Citation(s) in RCA: 56] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/21/2022]
Abstract
The evolutionary origins of one of the most dramatic and seemingly deleterious behavioral phenotypes, the syndrome known as schizophrenia, are mysterious. Schizophrenia occurs in all cultures and is inherited. Although most phenotypes are said to be "selected for" based on adaptive qualities, it is difficult to understand how the genetic basis of schizophrenia could have operated under a similar framework. This has lead several theorists analyzing the proposed evolutionary origins of other disease states to that of schizophrenia. To date, several models have been applied. We have tried to conceptualize schizophrenia in a compensatory advantage framework whereby incomplete penetrance of the full disorder, or alternatively, the inheritance of risk alleles insufficient in number to manifest as the classic clinical syndrome, may manifest as a behavioral phenotype with adaptive advantages (eg, creative behavior or novel illuminating ideas). The idea that even full penetrance can also be advantageous has been offered as applied to religious experience and ancient social standing, but is unlikely. Can complex behavioral phenotypes such as schizophrenia, and particularly those that seem purely deleterious, be explained by mechanisms of Darwinian psychiatry? Can models from other disease classes be applied successfully to schizophrenia? Such ideas have generated intense speculation, but often in the absence of testable models. In this article, we will examine some of these proposed ideas and offer suggestions for future research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Godfrey D. Pearlson
- The Olin Neuropsychiatry Research Center, 200 Retreat Avenue, Whitehall Building, Hartford, CT 06106,Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, 333 Cedar Street, New Haven, CT 06510,Department of Psychiatry, Johns Hopkins University, 600 North Wolfe Street, Baltimore, MD 21287,To whom correspondence should be addressed; tel: 860-545-7757, fax: 860-545-7797, e-mail:
| | - Bradley S. Folley
- The Olin Neuropsychiatry Research Center, 200 Retreat Avenue, Whitehall Building, Hartford, CT 06106
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Debunking evolutionary psychiatry’s schizophrenia paradox. Med Hypotheses 2008; 70:1215-22. [DOI: 10.1016/j.mehy.2007.10.014] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/02/2007] [Accepted: 10/06/2007] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
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Schizophrenia and phenotypic plasticity: Schizophrenia may represent a predictive, adaptive response to severe environmental adversity that allows both bioenergetic thrift and a defensive behavioral strategy. Med Hypotheses 2007; 69:383-94. [DOI: 10.1016/j.mehy.2006.12.031] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/01/2006] [Accepted: 12/06/2006] [Indexed: 01/20/2023]
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Polimeni J, Reiss JP, Sareen J. Could obsessive–compulsive disorder have originated as a group-selected adaptive trait in traditional societies? Med Hypotheses 2005; 65:655-64. [PMID: 16005572 DOI: 10.1016/j.mehy.2005.05.023] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/05/2005] [Accepted: 05/09/2005] [Indexed: 01/19/2023]
Abstract
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) possesses distinctive characteristics inviting evolutionary and anthropological explanations. A genetically based condition with low fecundity persisting through generations is paradoxical. The concept of group selection is an evolutionary principle capable of clarifying the perplexing epidemiology of OCD. Using a group-selection paradigm, the authors propose that OCD reflects an ancient form of behavioural specialization. The majority of compulsions such as checking, washing, counting, needing to confess, hoarding and requiring precision, all carry the potential to benefit society. Focussing primarily on hunting and gathering cultures, the potential evolutionary advantages of OCD are explored.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joseph Polimeni
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Manitoba, 771 Bannatyne Avenue, Winnipeg, MB, Canada.
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Wilson DR. Schizophrenia as one extreme of a sexually selected fitness indicator. Schizophr Res 2004; 70:111-4. [PMID: 15246470 DOI: 10.1016/j.schres.2003.10.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/24/2003] [Revised: 09/28/2003] [Accepted: 10/28/2003] [Indexed: 10/26/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Daniel R Wilson
- Department of Psychiatry, Creighton University Medical Center, 3528 Dodge Street, Omaha, NE 68131, USA.
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Abstract
The term 'schizophrenia' refers to a group of disorders that have been described in every human culture. Two apparently well established findings have corroborated the need for an evolutionary explanation of these disorders: (1) cross-culturally stable incidence rates and (2) decreased fecundity of the affected individuals. The rationale behind this relates to the evolutionary paradox that susceptibility genes for schizophrenia are obviously preserved in the human genepool, despite fundamental reproductive disadvantages associated with the disorders. Some researchers have therefore proposed that a compensatory advantage must exist in people who are carriers of these genes or in their first-degree relatives. Such advantages were hypothesised to be outside the brain (e.g. greater resistance against toxins or infectious diseases), or within the social domain (e.g. schizotypal shamans, creativity). More specifically, T.J. Crow has suggested an evolutionary theory of schizophrenia that relates the disorders to an extreme of variation of hemispheric specialisation and the evolution of language due to a single gene mutation located on homologous regions of the sex chromosomes. None of the evolutionary scenarios does, however, fully account for the diversity of the symptomatology, nor does any one hypothesis acknowledge the objection that the mere prevalence of a disorder must not be confused with adaptation. In the present article, I therefore discuss the evolutionary hypotheses of schizophrenia, arguing that a symptom-based approach to psychotic disorders in evolutionary perspective may improve upon the existing models of schizophrenia.
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Affiliation(s)
- Martin Brüne
- Centre for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Bochum, Alexandrinenstr, Bochum, Germany.
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Polimeni J, Reiss JP. Evolutionary perspectives on schizophrenia. CANADIAN JOURNAL OF PSYCHIATRY. REVUE CANADIENNE DE PSYCHIATRIE 2003; 48:34-9. [PMID: 12635562 DOI: 10.1177/070674370304800107] [Citation(s) in RCA: 34] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
Abstract
The theory of evolution may be relevant to psychiatric disorders. Evolution reflects changes in genes throughout time. Thus, evolutionary forces can shape any phenotype that is genetically rooted and that possesses a long history. Schizophrenia is likely an ancient condition with a substantial genetic component. Since the 1960s, several researchers have applied evolutionary principles to the study of schizophrenia. In general, schizophrenia is either viewed as an evolutionary advantageous condition or as a disadvantageous byproduct of normal brain evolution. This paper reviews major evolutionary explanations--historical and current--that speculate on the possible origins of schizophrenia.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joseph Polimeni
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB R3E 3N4.
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