Abstract

SANCHEZ DE LAS MATAS MARTIN, María del Carmen. Theory of mind and schizophrenia: conceptual and evolutionary elements. InterSedes [online]. 2014, vol.15, n.30, pp.169-196. ISSN 2215-2458.

This paper analyzes diverse definitions and classifications of some elements and processes that are usually considered as structures or functions of the “social brain”, ex. g., the mirror neurons, the affective empathy and the theory of mind, i. e., the meta-representation theory. The forenamed analysis relates those concepts to the genesis of evolutionary hypotheses concerning disorders that, paradoxically, suppose the biological survival, in the human species, of brain disorders of anti-empathetic sort, as for example autism and schizophrenia. In this sense, the author is interested in evolutionary hypotheses and hypothetical models that intend to explain schizophrenia as a situation that derives from an alteration of the theory of mind and, with superior latitude, from the social brain, hypotheses and models that intend to solve the apparent evolutionary paradox (because the author pays attention to a genetic basis of alienation).

Keywords : Autism; Social Brain; Cognitive Empathy; Emotional Empathy; Schizophrenia; Evolution; Homo sapiens; Language; Neuroscience; Mirror Neurons; Theory of Mind.

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