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The Emerging Neurobiology of Dissociative States

Relevance to PTSD

  • Chapter
International Handbook of Human Response to Trauma

Part of the book series: Springer Series on Stress and Coping ((SSSO))

Abstract

Sensory perception often appears to be a fixed process that produces an exact transcription of the world. This view conflicts with the increasingly well-characterized distortions in perception, identity, and memory that are commonplace in everyday life (Krystal et al., 1995; Ray 1996). Generally, modest levels of stress distort perception in a manner that optimizes information processing. For example, stress may enhance the focusing of attention and the efficiency of several cognitive processes at the expense of reduced processing of peripheral stimuli in the environment. As stress becomes extreme, gross perceptual distortions emerge, including illusions and hallucinations. These perceptual alterations may occur in association with identity-related disturbances such as derealization and depersonalization. Equally profound perceptual alterations take place as people fall asleep or undergo prolonged sensory deprivation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, VA Medical Center, Yale University School of Medicine, 06516, West Haven, Connecticut, USA

    John H. Krystal, J. Douglas Bremner, D. Cyril D’Souza, Amit Anand, Steven M. Southwick & Dennis S. Charney

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  1. John H. Krystal
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Hadassah University Hospital, Jerusalem, Israel

    Arieh Y. Shalev

  2. Mount Sinai School of Medicine, Bronx, New York, USA

    Rachel Yehuda

  3. Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Woodville, South Australia, Australia

    Alexander C. McFarlane

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Krystal, J.H., Bremner, J.D., D’Souza, D.C., Anand, A., Southwick, S.M., Charney, D.S. (2000). The Emerging Neurobiology of Dissociative States. In: Shalev, A.Y., Yehuda, R., McFarlane, A.C. (eds) International Handbook of Human Response to Trauma. Springer Series on Stress and Coping. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-4177-6_22

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