Study of normal and pathological human behavior from dimensional models of psychopathology: interoception, emotional regulation, and negative repetitive thinking

Study of normal and pathological human behavior from dimensional models of psychopathology: interoception, emotional regulation, and negative repetitive thinking

A priority problem in mental health today is the high comorbidity among pathologies of negative affect, as anxiety disorders and depression are currently called. This complexity is immeasurable for most psychological treatments, designed for exclusive diagnostic categories. Robust evidence confirms the existence of factors and mechanisms at different levels (behavioral, cognitive, neuropsychological and neurophysiological) common to these disorders, highlighting their similarities. A transdiagnostic characterization of these mechanisms and factors would allow the limitations of the current diagnostic categories to be overcome and would lead to a dimensional description of these pathologies, impacting both the way in which the diagnoses are produced, as well as the planning of therapeutic interventions. If this is achieved, one of the critical dilemmas in the area of ​​psychopathology would be advanced: the existence of factors common to psychiatric diseases. This will favor the reaching of a new level of understanding of its mechanisms and therefore of the treatments. In this sense, the present project seeks to describe and characterize, from a multilevel approach, three transdiagnostic dimensions affected in the pathologies of negative affect: (i) interoception, as a determining mechanism in visceral processing of emotions; (ii) emotional regulation, such as the ability to perceive and influence our emotions; and (iii) cognitive control, a psychopathological dimension associated with failed and frustrating attempts to control emotions and the events that trigger them.

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