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The Brain Emotional Systems in Addictions: From Attachment to Dominance/Submission Systems

Human development has become particularly complex during the evolution. In this complexity, adolescence is an extremely important developmental stage. Adolescence is characterized by biological and social changes that create the prerequisites to psychopathological problems, including both substance...

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Autores principales: Giacolini, Teodosio, Conversi, David, Alcaro, Antonio
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7843379/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33519403
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2020.609467
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author Giacolini, Teodosio
Conversi, David
Alcaro, Antonio
author_facet Giacolini, Teodosio
Conversi, David
Alcaro, Antonio
author_sort Giacolini, Teodosio
collection PubMed
description Human development has become particularly complex during the evolution. In this complexity, adolescence is an extremely important developmental stage. Adolescence is characterized by biological and social changes that create the prerequisites to psychopathological problems, including both substance and non-substance addictive behaviors. Central to the dynamics of the biological changes during adolescence are the synergy between sexual and neurophysiological development, which activates the motivational/emotional systems of Dominance/Submission. The latter are characterized by the interaction between the sexual hormones, the dopaminergic system and the stress axis (HPA). The maturation of these motivational/emotional systems requires the integration with the phylogenetically more recent Attachment/CARE Systems, which primarily have governed the subject’s relationships until puberty. The integration of these systems is particularly complex in the human species, due to the evolution of the process of competition related to sexual selection: from a simple fight between two individuals (of the same genus and species) to a struggle for the acquisition of a position in rank and the competition between groups. The latter is an important evolutionary acquisition and believed to be the variable that has most contributed to enhancing the capacity for cooperation in the human species. The interaction between competition and cooperation, and between competition and attachment, characterizes the entire human relational and emotional structure and the unending work of integration to which the BrainMind is involved. The beginning of the integration of the aforementioned motivational/emotional systems is currently identified in the prepubertal period, during the juvenile stage, with the development of the Adrenarche—the so-called Adrenal Puberty. This latter stage is characterized by a low rate of release of androgens, the hormones released by the adrenal cortex, which activate the same behaviors as those observed in the PLAY system. The Adrenarche and the PLAY system are biological and functional prerequisites of adolescence, a period devoted to learning the difficult task of integrating the phylogenetically ancient Dominance/Submission Systems with the newer Attachment/CARE Systems. These systems accompany very different adaptive goals which can easily give rise to mutual conflict and can in turn make the balance of the BrainMind precarious and vulnerable to mental suffering.
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spelling pubmed-78433792021-01-30 The Brain Emotional Systems in Addictions: From Attachment to Dominance/Submission Systems Giacolini, Teodosio Conversi, David Alcaro, Antonio Front Hum Neurosci Human Neuroscience Human development has become particularly complex during the evolution. In this complexity, adolescence is an extremely important developmental stage. Adolescence is characterized by biological and social changes that create the prerequisites to psychopathological problems, including both substance and non-substance addictive behaviors. Central to the dynamics of the biological changes during adolescence are the synergy between sexual and neurophysiological development, which activates the motivational/emotional systems of Dominance/Submission. The latter are characterized by the interaction between the sexual hormones, the dopaminergic system and the stress axis (HPA). The maturation of these motivational/emotional systems requires the integration with the phylogenetically more recent Attachment/CARE Systems, which primarily have governed the subject’s relationships until puberty. The integration of these systems is particularly complex in the human species, due to the evolution of the process of competition related to sexual selection: from a simple fight between two individuals (of the same genus and species) to a struggle for the acquisition of a position in rank and the competition between groups. The latter is an important evolutionary acquisition and believed to be the variable that has most contributed to enhancing the capacity for cooperation in the human species. The interaction between competition and cooperation, and between competition and attachment, characterizes the entire human relational and emotional structure and the unending work of integration to which the BrainMind is involved. The beginning of the integration of the aforementioned motivational/emotional systems is currently identified in the prepubertal period, during the juvenile stage, with the development of the Adrenarche—the so-called Adrenal Puberty. This latter stage is characterized by a low rate of release of androgens, the hormones released by the adrenal cortex, which activate the same behaviors as those observed in the PLAY system. The Adrenarche and the PLAY system are biological and functional prerequisites of adolescence, a period devoted to learning the difficult task of integrating the phylogenetically ancient Dominance/Submission Systems with the newer Attachment/CARE Systems. These systems accompany very different adaptive goals which can easily give rise to mutual conflict and can in turn make the balance of the BrainMind precarious and vulnerable to mental suffering. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-01-15 /pmc/articles/PMC7843379/ /pubmed/33519403 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2020.609467 Text en Copyright © 2021 Giacolini, Conversi and Alcaro. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Human Neuroscience
Giacolini, Teodosio
Conversi, David
Alcaro, Antonio
The Brain Emotional Systems in Addictions: From Attachment to Dominance/Submission Systems
title The Brain Emotional Systems in Addictions: From Attachment to Dominance/Submission Systems
title_full The Brain Emotional Systems in Addictions: From Attachment to Dominance/Submission Systems
title_fullStr The Brain Emotional Systems in Addictions: From Attachment to Dominance/Submission Systems
title_full_unstemmed The Brain Emotional Systems in Addictions: From Attachment to Dominance/Submission Systems
title_short The Brain Emotional Systems in Addictions: From Attachment to Dominance/Submission Systems
title_sort brain emotional systems in addictions: from attachment to dominance/submission systems
topic Human Neuroscience
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7843379/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33519403
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2020.609467
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