Perseverative cognition is defined as the repetitive or sustained activation of cognitive representations of past stressful events or feared events in the future and even at non-clinical levels it causes a “fight-or-flight” action tendency, followed by a cascade of biological events, starting in the brain and ending as peripheral stress responses. In the past decade, such persistent physiological activation has proven to impact individuals’ health, potentially leading to somatic disease. As such, perseverative cognition has recently been proposed as the missing piece in the relationships between stress, psychopathology, and risk for health. Perseverative cognition is indeed a hallmark of conditions such as anxiety and mood disorders that are at increased -though still unexplained- cardiovascular risk. Although the pivotal role of ruminative and worrisome thoughts in determining the onset and maintenance of psychopathological disorders has been acknowledged for a long time, its effects on the body via reciprocal influences between mental processes and the body's physiology have been neglected. Moreover, perseverative cognition is definitely not restricted to psychopathology, it is extremely common and likely even omnipresent, pervading daily life. The objective of the Research Topic is to provide an interdisciplinary examination of cutting-edge neuroscientific research on brain-body signatures of perseverative cognition in both healthy and psychopathological individuals. Despite the evident role of the brain in repetitive thinking and the assumption that our mind is embodied, bran-body pathways from perseverative cognition to health risk have remained largely unexplored.

Perseverative cognition is defined as the repetitive or sustained activation of cognitive representations of past stressful events or feared events in the future and even at non-clinical levels it causes a "fight-or-flight" action tendency, followed by a cascade of biological events, starting in the brain and ending as peripheral stress responses. In the past decade, such persistent physiological activation has proven to impact individuals' health, potentially leading to somatic disease. As such, perseverative cognition has recently been proposed as the missing piece in the relationships between stress, psychopathology, and risk for health. Perseverative cognition is indeed a hallmark of conditions such as anxiety and mood disorders that are at increased -though still unexplained- cardiovascular risk. Although the pivotal role of ruminative and worrisome thoughts in determining the onset and maintenance of psychopathological disorders has been acknowledged for a long time, its effects on the body via reciprocal influences between mental processes and the body's physiology have been neglected. Moreover, perseverative cognition is definitely not restricted to psychopathology, it is extremely common and likely even omnipresent, pervading daily life. The objective of the Research Topic is to provide an interdisciplinary examination of cutting-edge neuroscientific research on brain-body signatures of perseverative cognition in both healthy and psychopathological individuals. Despite the evident role of the brain in repetitive thinking and the assumption that our mind is embodied, bran-body pathways from perseverative cognition to health risk have remained largely unexplored.

How does your mind work? How does your brain give rise to your mind? These are questions that all of us have wondered about at some point in our lives, if only because everything that we know is experienced in our minds. They are also very hard questions to answer. After all, how can a mind understand itself? How can you understand something as complex as the tool that is being used to understand it? This book provides an introductory and self-contained description of some of the exciting answers to these questions that modern theories of mind and brain have recently proposed. Stephen Grossberg is broadly acknowledged to be the most important pioneer and current research leader who has, for the past 50 years, modelled how brains give rise to minds, notably how neural circuits in multiple brain regions interact together to generate psychological functions. This research has led to a unified understanding of how, where, and why our brains can consciously see, hear, feel, and know about the world, and effectively plan and act within it. The work embodies revolutionary Principia of Mind that clarify how autonomous adaptive intelligence is achieved. It provides mechanistic explanations of multiple mental disorders, including symptoms of Alzheimer's disease, autism, amnesia, and sleep disorders; biological bases of morality and religion, including why our brains are biased towards the good so that values are not purely relative; perplexing aspects of the human condition, including why many decisions are irrational and self-defeating despite evolution's selection of adaptive behaviors; and solutions to large-scale problems in machine learning, technology, and Artificial Intelligence that provide a blueprint for autonomously intelligent algorithms and robots. Because brains embody a universal developmental code, unifying insights also emerge about shared laws that are found in all living cellular tissues, from the most primitive to the most advanced, notably how the laws governing networks of interacting cells support developmental and learning processes in all species. The fundamental brain design principles of complementarity, uncertainty, and resonance that Grossberg has discovered also reflect laws of the physical world with which our brains ceaselessly interact, and which enable our brains to incrementally learn to understand those laws, thereby enabling humans to understand the world scientifically. Accessibly written, and lavishly illustrated, Conscious Mind/Resonant Brain is the magnum opus of one of the most influential scientists of the past 50 years, and will appeal to a broad readership across the sciences and humanities.

There is an emergent movement of scientists and scholars working on somatic awareness, interoception and embodiment. This work cuts across studies of neurophysiology, somatic anthropology, contemplative practice, and mind-body medicine. Key questions include: How is body awareness cultivated? What role does interoception play for emotion and cognition in healthy adults and children as well as in different psychopathologies? What are the neurophysiological effects of this cultivation in practices such as Yoga, mindfulness meditation, Tai Chi and other embodied contemplative practices? What categories from other traditions might be useful as we explore embodiment? Does the cultivation of body awareness within contemplative practice offer a tool for coping with suffering from conditions, such as pain, addiction, and dysregulated emotion? This emergent field of research into somatic awareness and associated interoceptive processes, however, faces many obstacles. The principle obstacle lies in our 400-year Cartesian tradition that views sensory perception as epiphenomenal to cognition. The segregation of perception and cognition has enabled a broad program of cognitive science research, but may have also prevented researchers from developing paradigms for understanding how interoceptive awareness of sensations from inside the body influences cognition. The cognitive representation of interoceptive signals may play an active role in facilitating therapeutic transformation, e.g. by altering context in which cognitive appraisals of well-being occur. This topic has ramifications into disparate research fields: What is the role of interoceptive awareness in conscious presence? How do we distinguish between adaptive and maladaptive somatic awareness? How do we best measure somatic awareness? What are the consequences of dysregulated somatic/interoceptive awareness on cognition, emotion, and behavior? The complexity of these questions calls for the creative integration of perspectives and findings from related but often disparate research areas including clinical research, neuroscience, cognitive psychology, anthropology, religious/contemplative studies and philosophy.

Introductory textbooks on neurogenic communication disorders associated with aphasia and brain injury do not provide full documentation of the pervasive influence of perseveration in the diagnosis and treatment of clients with severe language processing deficits. This special issue of Aphasiology aims to revives the profound interest in verbal perseveration observed in the classical German literature between 1890 and 1931. Various aspects of the phenomenon of perseveration are addressed in this issue. When and under what circumstances do perseverations occur? What are the characteristics of perseverative errors and how do they relate to non-perseverative sound and word errors? The papers share a common goal, namely to understand the origin of the phenomenon 'perseveration' in healthy subjects and clients with brain damage and injury. An overarching claim throughout the papers is that perseveration reflects the client's primary language processing deficits.

"A work of enormous breadth, likely to pleasantly surprise both general readers and experts."—New York Times Book Review This revolutionary book provides fresh answers to long-standing questions of human origins and consciousness. Drawing on his breakthrough research in comparative neuroscience, Terrence Deacon offers a wealth of insights into the significance of symbolic thinking: from the co-evolutionary exchange between language and brains over two million years of hominid evolution to the ethical repercussions that followed man's newfound access to other people's thoughts and emotions. Informing these insights is a new understanding of how Darwinian processes underlie the brain's development and function as well as its evolution. In contrast to much contemporary neuroscience that treats the brain as no more or less than a computer, Deacon provides a new clarity of vision into the mechanism of mind. It injects a renewed sense of adventure into the experience of being human.

This new edition gives an up-to-date account of the causes, anatomical basis, and mechanisms of confabulations. It traces the history of the phenomenon of false memories, considers a range of clinical cases, and makes important recommendations for future study. It is essential for neurologists, psychiatrists, and cognitive neuroscientists.

In the last decade, tremendous progress has been made in understanding and addressing generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), a prevalent yet long-neglected syndrome associated with substantial functional impairment and reduced life satisfaction. This comprehensive, empirically based volume brings together leading authorities to review the breadth of current knowledge on the phenomenology, etiology, pathological mechanisms, diagnosis, and treatment of GAD. Provided are psychological and neurobiological models of the disorder that combine cutting-edge research and clinical expertise. Assessment strategies are detailed and promising intervention approaches described in depth, including cognitive-behavioral, interpersonal, psychodynamic, and pharmacological therapies. Also covered are special issues in the treatment of GAD in children, adolescents, and older adults.

In 1953, 27-year-old Henry Gustave Molaison underwent an experimental "psychosurgical" procedure -- a targeted lobotomy -- in an effort to alleviate his debilitating epilepsy. The outcome was unexpected -- when Henry awoke, he could no longer form new memories, and for the rest of his life would be trapped in the moment. But Henry's tragedy would prove a gift to humanity. As renowned neuroscientist Suzanne Corkin explains in Permanent Present Tense, she and her colleagues brought to light the sharp contrast between Henry's crippling memory impairment and his preserved intellect. This new insight that the capacity for remembering is housed in a specific brain area revolutionized the science of memory. The case of Henry -- known only by his initials H. M. until his death in 2008 -- stands as one of the most consequential and widely referenced in the spiraling field of neuroscience. Corkin and her collaborators worked closely with Henry for nearly fifty years, and in Permanent Present Tense she tells the incredible story of the life and legacy of this intelligent, quiet, and remarkably good-humored man. Henry never remembered Corkin from one meeting to the next and had only a dim conception of the importance of the work they were doing together, yet he was consistently happy to see her and always willing to participate in her research. His case afforded untold advances in the study of memory, including the discovery that even profound amnesia spares some kinds of learning, and that different memory processes are localized to separate circuits in the human brain. Henry taught us that learning can occur without conscious awareness, that short-term and long-term memory are distinct capacities, and that the effects of aging-related disease are detectable in an already damaged brain. Undergirded by rich details about the functions of the human brain, Permanent Present Tense pulls back the curtain on the man whose misfortune propelled a half-century of exciting research. With great clarity, sensitivity, and grace, Corkin brings readers to the cutting edge of neuroscience in this deeply felt elegy for her patient and friend.

Readership: Academics, clinical psychologists and psychiatrists, cognitive behavioural therapists, and undergraduate and postgraduate students in clinical psychology