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2 - Rethinking Psychiatric Disorders in Terms of Heterarchical Networks of Control Mechanisms

from Section 1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 April 2020

By
William Bechtel
Edited by
Kenneth S. Kendler ,
Josef Parnas  and
Peter Zachar
Kenneth S. Kendler
Affiliation:
Virginia Commonwealth University
Josef Parnas
Affiliation:
University of Copenhagen
Peter Zachar
Affiliation:
Auburn University, Montgomery
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Summary

This chapter offers a framework for understanding mechanistic explanations of psychiatric disorders in terms of altered activities in a heterarchical network of control mechanisms. This differs both from approaches that seek to characterize the mechanism responsible for producing the disease state and those that attribute the disease state to broken mechanisms. Control mechanisms operate on soft constraints in other mechanisms and thereby alter their operation. Although often viewed as hierarchical, the brain is organized as a heterarchical network, with many control mechanisms operating on the same controlled mechanisms and no chief executive. This poses challenges for attempts to understand the ramifications of altered functioning of components of the network. Using a recent example of research showing the effects of modifying the activity of proteins within the circadian clock on depression-like behavior in mice, this chapter illustrates how progress might be made as well as the challenges faced in explaining psychiatric disorders.

Keywords

control mechanismsmechanistic explanationheterarchical organizationhierarchical organizationdepressioncircadian rhythms
Type
Chapter
Information
Levels of Analysis in Psychopathology
Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives
 , pp. 24 - 46
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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