FND exists at the intersection of several disciplines. Here you’ll find links to research and writing from a number of these fields. Each is relevant to FND, even if FND isn’t explicitly mentioned in every text.
Sources below are grouped by topic, listed in this order:
Consciousness, Construction, and Predictive Processing
Feminism, Gender, and Sexuality
Functional Neurological Disorder – Neurobiology, Diagnosis, and Treatment
History of FND
Philosophy
Consciousness, Construction, and Predictive Processing
Allen, M., & Friston, K. (2016). From cognitivism to autopoiesis: towards a computational framework for the embodied mind. Synthese, 195(6), 2459-2482. doi: 10.1007/s11229-016-1288-5
Allen, M., Levy, A., Parr, T., & Friston, K. (2019). In the Body’s Eye: The Computational Anatomy of Interoceptive Inference. Bioarxiv. doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/603928
Cappuccio et al., M. (2018). The Many Threats of Self-Consciousness: Embodied Approaches to Choking Under Pressure in Sensorimotor Skills. Handbook Of Embodied Cognition And Sport Psychology.
Clark, A. (2016). Surfing uncertainty (1st ed.). Oxford University Press.
Craig, A. (2015). How do you feel? An Interoceptive Moment with Your Neurobiological Self. Princeton University Press.
Damasio, A. (1999). The Feeling of What Happens: Body and Emotion in the Making of Consciousness. Harcourt.
Edwards, M., Adams, R., Brown, H., Parees, I., & Friston, K. (2012). A Bayesian account of ‘hysteria’. Brain, 135(11), 3495-3512. doi: 10.1093/brain/aws129
Evrard, H. (2019). The Organization of the Primate Insular Cortex. Frontiers In Neuroanatomy, 13. doi: 10.3389/fnana.2019.00043
Feldman Barrett, L. (2016). How emotions are made. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Feldman Barrett, L. (2016). The theory of constructed emotion: an active inference account of interoception and categorization. Social Cognitive And Affective Neuroscience, nsw154. doi: 10.1093/scan/nsw154
Feldman Barrett, L., & Simmons, W. (2015). Interoceptive predictions in the brain. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 16(7), 419-429. doi: 10.1038/nrn3950
Friston, K. (2010). The free-energy principle: a unified brain theory?. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 11(2), pp.127-138.
Gershman, S. (2019). What does the free energy principle tell us about the brain?. Arxiv:1901.07945. Retrieved from https://arxiv.org/pdf/1901.07945v1.pdf
Hoemann, K., & Feldman Barrett, L. (2018). Concepts dissolve artificial boundaries in the study of emotion and cognition, uniting body, brain, and mind. Cognition And Emotion, 33(1), 67-76. doi: 10.1080/02699931.2018.1535428
Hoemann, K., Gendron, M., & Barrett, L. (2017). Mixed emotions in the predictive brain. Current Opinion In Behavioral Sciences, 15, 51-57. doi: 10.1016/j.cobeha.2017.05.013
Kleckner, I., Zhang, J., Touroutoglou, A., Chanes, L., Xia, C., & Simmons, W. et al. (2017). Evidence for a large-scale brain system supporting allostasis and interoception in humans. Nature Human Behaviour, 1(5). doi: 10.1038/s41562-017-0069
Ma, W. and Jazayeri, M. (2014). Neural Coding of Uncertainty and Probability. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 37(1), pp.205-220.
Seth, A. (2013). Interoceptive inference, emotion, and the embodied self. Trends In Cognitive Sciences, 17(11), 565-573. doi: 10.1016/j.tics.2013.09.007
Seth, A., & Tsakiris, M. (2018). Being a Beast Machine: The Somatic Basis of Selfhood. Trends In Cognitive Sciences, 22(11), 969-981. doi: 10.1016/j.tics.2018.08.008
Sridharan, D., Levitin, D., & Menon, V. (2008). A critical role for the right fronto-insular cortex in switching between central-executive and default-mode networks. Proceedings Of The National Academy Of Sciences, 105(34), 12569-12574. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0800005105
Tappin, B., & Gadsby, S. (2019). Biased belief in the Bayesian brain: A deeper look at the evidence. Consciousness And Cognition, 68, 107-114. doi: 10.1016/j.concog.2019.01.006
Tsakiris, M. and Preester, H. (2019). The Interoceptive Mind. Oxford University Press.
Wegner, D. (2017). The Illusion of Conscious Will, new edition. The MIT Press.
Feminism, Gender, and Sexuality
Barnes, E. (2023) Women’s pain, it seems, is hysterical until proven otherwise. Aeon Magazine. Available at: https://aeon.co/essays/womens-pain-it-seems-is-hysterical-until-proven-otherwise (Accessed: January 9, 2023).
Cixous, H. (1976). The Laugh of the Medusa. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 1(4), pp.875-893.
Davis, A. (1983). Women Race and Class (1st ed.). Penguin Random House.
Devereux, C. (2014). Hysteria, Feminism, and Gender Revisited: The Case of the Second Wave. ESC: English Studies In Canada, 40(1), 19-45. doi: 10.1353/esc.2014.000
*Note: I don’t agree with the viewpoint of this article, but it represents an important point in the historical dialogue around “hysteria”, and is thus included.
Fetters, A., & Meyer, R. (2019). Victorian-Era Orgasms and the Crisis of Peer Review. Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2018/09/victorian-vibrators-orgasms-doctors/569446/
Gilman, S., King, H., Porter, R., Rousseau, G. and Showalter, E. (2019). Hysteria Beyond Freud. University of California Press.
Greene, L. (2009). The discourse of hysteria. Lewiston, N.Y.: Edwin Mellen Press.
*An archetypal text that treats “hysteria” not primarily as a disorder, but as a mode of communication or expression. I very much disagree with this perspective, but it is one that was prevalent in academic circles in the late 20th century, and is included as representative of this trend.
Hall, L. (2019). Victorian Sex Factoids: Doctors masturbating women as a cure for hysteria / ‘Victorian vibrators’. [online] Lesleyahall.net. Available at: http://lesleyahall.net/factoids.htm#hysteria [Accessed 29 Jun. 2019].
King, H. (2011). Galen and the widow: towards a history of therapeutic masturbation in ancient gynaecology – Open Research Online. [online] Oro.open.ac.uk.
Lerner, G. (1986). The creation of patriarchy. New York: Oxford University Press.
Lieberman, H., & Schatzberg, E. (2018). A Failure of Academic Quality Control: The Technology of Orgasm. Journal Of Positive Sexuality, 4.
Maines, R. (2010). The Technology of Orgasm. [S.l.]: Johns Hopkins University Press.
*This book was highly influential on the public discourse around “hysteria” for over two decades. It has also recently been discovered to be a work of academic fraud. It is included here due to its ongoing (and unfortunate) social influence. See sources Lieberman, King, Hall for scholarly refutations.
Functional Neurological Disorder – Neurobiology, Diagnosis, and Treatment
Aybek, S. and Perez, D.L. (2022) “Diagnosis and management of functional neurological disorder,” BMJ [Preprint]. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.o64.
Bègue, I., Adams, C., Stone, J., & Perez, D. (2019). Structural alterations in functional neurological disorder and related conditions: a software and hardware problem?. Neuroimage: Clinical, 22, 101798. doi: 10.1016/j.nicl.2019.101798
Bryson, A., Carter, O., Norman, T., & Kanaan, R. (2017). 5-HT2A Agonists: A Novel Therapy for Functional Neurological Disorders?. International Journal Of Neuropsychopharmacology, 20(5), 422-427. doi: 10.1093/ijnp/pyx011
Carson, A., Stone, J., Hibberd, C., Murray, G., Duncan, R., Coleman, R., Warlow, C., Roberts, R., Pelosi, A., Cavanagh, J., Matthews, K., Goldbeck, R., Hansen, C. and Sharpe, M. (2011). Disability, distress and unemployment in neurology outpatients with symptoms ‘unexplained by organic disease’. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, 82(7), pp.810-813.
Diez, I., Ortiz-Teran, L., Williams, B., Jalilianhasanpour, R., Ospina, J., & Dickerson, B. et al. (2019). Corticolimbic fast-tracking: enhanced multimodal integration in functional neurological disorder. Journal Of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry. doi: 10.1136/jnnp-2018-319657
Edwards, M. (2018). What relationship do stressful life events, neglect and abuse have with functional neurological disorder (conversion disorder)?. National Elf Service. Available at: https://www.nationalelfservice.net/diagnosis/risk-factors/functional-neurological-disorder-conversion-disorder/ [Accessed 12 Mar. 2019].
Edwards, M., Stone, J. and Lang, A. (2013). From psychogenic movement disorder to functional movement disorder: It’s time to change the name. Movement Disorders, 29(7), pp.849-852.
Espay, A., Aybek, S., Carson, A., Edwards, M., Goldstein, L., & Hallett, M. et al. (2018). Current Concepts in Diagnosis and Treatment of Functional Neurological Disorders. JAMA Neurology, 75(9), 1132. doi: 10.1001/jamaneurol.2018.1264
Fobian, A.D., Long, D.M. and Szaflarski, J.P. (2020) “Retraining and control therapy for pediatric psychogenic non‐epileptic seizures,” Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology, 7(8), pp. 1410–1419. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1002/acn3.51138.
Hallett, M. (2006). Psychogenic movement disorders: A crisis for neurology. Current Neurology And Neuroscience Reports, 6(4), 269-271. doi: 10.1007/s11910-006-0015-x
Jacob, A., Kaelin, D., Roach, A., Ziegler, C. and LaFaver, K. (2018). Motor Retraining (MoRe) for Functional Movement Disorders: Outcomes From a 1-Week Multidisciplinary Rehabilitation Program. PM&R, 10(11), pp.1164-1172.
Jungilligens, J. et al. (2022) “A new science of emotion: Implications for functional neurological disorder” Brain, 145(8), pp. 2648–2663. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awac204.
Kanaan, R., Armstrong, D., & Wessely, S. (2012). The function of ‘functional’: a mixed methods investigation Journal Of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, 83(3), 248-250. doi: 10.1136/jnnp-2011-300992
Keynejad, R., Carson, A., David, A., & Nicholson, T. (2017). Functional neurological disorder: psychiatry’s blind spot. The Lancet Psychiatry, 4(3), e2-e3. doi: 10.1016/s2215-0366(17)30036-6
Keynejad, R., Frodl, T., Kanaan, R., Pariante, C., Reuber, M., & Nicholson, T. (2018). Stress and functional neurological disorders: mechanistic insights. Journal Of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, 90(7), 813-821. doi: 10.1136/jnnp-2018-318297
Kozlowska, K. (2017). A stress-system model for functional neurological symptoms. Journal Of The Neurological Sciences, 383, 151-152. doi: 10.1016/j.jns.2017.10.044
LaFaver, K. and Hallett, M. (2014). Functional or psychogenic: What’s the better name?. Movement Disorders, 29(13), pp.1698-1699.
Lidstone, S.C. et al. (2022) “Functional movement disorder gender, age and phenotype study: A systematic review and individual patient meta-analysis of 4905 cases,” Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, 93(6), pp. 609–616. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1136/jnnp-2021-328462.
Ludwig, L., Pasman, J., Nicholson, T., Aybek, S., David, A., & Tuck, S. et al. (2018). Stressful life events and maltreatment in conversion (functional neurological) disorder: systematic review and meta-analysis of case-control studies. The Lancet Psychiatry, 5(4), 307-320. doi: 10.1016/s2215-0366(18)30051-8
Maurer, C., Liu, V., LaFaver, K., Ameli, R., Wu, T., Toledo, R., Epstein, S. and Hallett, M. (2016). Impaired resting vagal tone in patients with functional movement disorders. Parkinsonism & Related Disorders, 30, pp.18-22.
Nicholson, T., Aybek, S., Kempton, M., Daly, E., Murphy, D., David, A., & Kanaan, R. (2013). A structural MRI study of motor conversion disorder: evidence of reduction in thalamic volume. Journal Of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, 85(2), 227-229. doi: 10.1136/jnnp-2013-305012
Nicholson, T., Stone, J., & Kanaan, R. (2010). Conversion disorder: a problematic diagnosis. Journal Of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, 82(11), 1267-1273. doi: 10.1136/jnnp.2008.171306
Nielsen, G., Stone, J., Matthews, A., Brown, M., Sparkes, C., & Farmer, R. et al. (2014). Physiotherapy for functional motor disorders: a consensus recommendation. Journal Of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, 86(10), 1113-1119. doi: 10.1136/jnnp-2014-309255
Paredes-Echeverri, S. et al. (2022) “Autonomic, endocrine, and inflammation profiles in functional neurological disorder: A systematic review and meta-analysis,” The Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, 34(1), pp. 30–43. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.neuropsych.21010025.
Pareés, I., Kojovic, M., Pires, C., Rubio-Agusti, I., Saifee, T., & Sadnicka, A. et al. (2014). Physical precipitating factors in functional movement disorders. Journal Of The Neurological Sciences, 338(1-2), 174-177. doi: 10.1016/j.jns.2013.12.046
Perez, D., Barsky, A., Daffner, K. and Silbersweig, D. (2012). Motor and Somatosensory Conversion Disorder: A Functional Unawareness Syndrome?. The Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, 24(2), pp.141-151.
Perez, D., Barsky, A., Vago, D., Baslet, G. and Silbersweig, D. (2015). A Neural Circuit Framework for Somatosensory Amplification in Somatoform Disorders. The Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, 27(1), pp.e40-e50.
Perez, D., Dworetzky, B., Dickerson, B., Leung, L., Cohn, R., Baslet, G. and Silbersweig, D. (2014). An Integrative Neurocircuit Perspective on Psychogenic Nonepileptic Seizures and Functional Movement Disorders. Clinical EEG and Neuroscience, 46(1), pp.4-15.
Perez, D., Matin, N., Barsky, A., Costumero-Ramos, V., Makaretz, S., Young, S., Sepulcre, J., LaFranceJr, W., Keshavan, M. and Dickerson, B. (2017). Cingulo-insular structural alterations associated with psychogenic symptoms, childhood abuse and PTSD in functional neurological disorders. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, 88(6), pp.491-497.
Perez, D., Matin, N., Williams, B., Tanev, K., Makris, N., LaFrance, W. and Dickerson, B. (2017). Cortical thickness alterations linked to somatoform and psychological dissociation in functional neurological disorders. Human Brain Mapping, 39(1), pp.428-439.
Perez, D., Williams, B., Matin, N., LaFrance, W., Costumero-Ramos, V., Fricchione, G., Sepulcre, J., Keshavan, M. and Dickerson, B. (2017). Corticolimbic structural alterations linked to health status and trait anxiety in functional neurological disorder. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, 88(12), pp.1052-1059.
Pick, S., Goldstein, L., Perez, D., & Nicholson, T. (2018). Emotional processing in functional neurological disorder: a review, biopsychosocial model and research agenda. Journal Of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, 90(6), 704-711. doi: 10.1136/jnnp-2018-319201
Popkirov, S., Hoeritzauer, I., Colvin, L., Carson, A., & Stone, J. (2018). Complex regional pain syndrome and functional neurological disorders – time for reconciliation. Journal Of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, 90(5), 608-614. doi: 10.1136/jnnp-2018-318298
Popkirov, S. et al (2019). Hiding in Plain Sight: Functional Neurological Disorders in the News. The Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences. [online] Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31117907 [Accessed 29 Jun. 2019].
Reuber, M. (2018). Trauma, traumatisation, and functional neurological symptom disorder—what are the links?. The Lancet Psychiatry, 5(4), 288-289. doi: 10.1016/s2215-0366(18)30101-9
Ricciardi, L., Demartini, B., Crucianelli, L., Krahé, C., Edwards, M. and Fotopoulou, A. (2016). Interoceptive awareness in patients with functional neurological symptoms. Biological Psychology, 113, pp.68-74.
Rommelfanger, K., Factor, S., LaRoche, S., Rosen, P., Young, R. and Rapaport, M. (2017). Disentangling Stigma from Functional Neurological Disorders: Conference Report and Roadmap for the Future. Frontiers in Neurology, 8.
Stone, J., Carson, A., Aditya, H., Prescott, R., Zaubi, M., Warlow, C., & Sharpe, M. (2009). The role of physical injury in motor and sensory conversion symptoms: A systematic and narrative review. Journal Of Psychosomatic Research, 66(5), 383-390. doi: 10.1016/j.jpsychores.2008.07.010
Stone, J., Carson, A., Duncan, R., Coleman, R., Roberts, R., & Warlow, C. et al. (2009). Symptoms ‘unexplained by organic disease’ in 1144 new neurology out-patients: how often does the diagnosis change at follow-up?. Brain, 132(10), 2878-2888. doi: 10.1093/brain/awp220
Stone, J. and Carson, A. (2015). Functional Neurologic Disorders. CONTINUUM: Lifelong Learning in Neurology, 21, pp.818-837.
Stone, J., Hewett, R., Carson, A., Warlow, C. and Sharpe, M. (2008). The ‘disappearance’ of hysteria: Historical mystery or illusion?. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 101(1), pp.12-18.
Stone, J., LaFrance, W., Levenson, J., & Sharpe, M. (2010). Issues for DSM-5: Conversion Disorder. American Journal Of Psychiatry, 167(6), 626-627. doi: 10.1176/appi.ajp.2010.09101440
Stone, J., Warlow, C. and Sharpe, M. (2011). Functional weakness: clues to mechanism from the nature of onset. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, 83(1), pp.67-69.
Tolchin, B., Martino, S., & Hirsch, L. (2019). Treatment of Patients With Psychogenic Nonepileptic Attacks. JAMA, 321(20), 1967. doi: 10.1001/jama.2019.3520
Vassilopoulos, A., Mohammad, S., Dure, L. et al. Treatment Approaches for Functional Neurological Disorders in Children. Curr Treat Options Neurol 24, 77–97 (2022).
Viswanathan, N. and Benbadis, S.R. (2022) The diagnosis of functional seizures, Practical Neurology. Bryn Mawr Communications. Available at: https://practicalneurology.com/articles/2022-mar-apr/the-diagnosis-of-functional-seizures (Accessed: January 12, 2023).
Voon, V., Gallea, C., Hattori, N., Bruno, M., Ekanayake, V., & Hallett, M. (2010). The involuntary nature of conversion disorder. Neurology, 74(3), 223-228. doi: 10.1212/wnl.0b013e3181ca00e9
Williams, C., Kent, C., Smith, S., Carson, A., Sharpe, M. and Cavanagh, J. (2017). Overcoming Functional Neurological Symptoms: A Five Areas Approach. London and New York: Routledge Taylor and Francis Group.
Williams, I., Reuber, M., & Levita, L. (2019). Relationship between interoception and stress in patients with functional neurological symptom disorder. British Journal Of Neurology, Neurosurgery And Psychiatry, 90(suppl 2). Retrieved from https://jnnp.bmj.com/content/90/Suppl_2/A11.2
History + Historical Sources (Hysteria, Conversion Disorder)
Arnaud, S. (2015). On Hysteria: The Invention of a Medical Category between 1670 and 1720. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Breuer, J. and Freud, S. (1995). Studies on hysteria. London: Hogarth Press.
Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, third edition. 1980.
Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, fourth edition text revision. (2000). 4th text revision ed. Arlington: American Psychiatric Publishing.
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: DSM-5 (5th edition) 2014 Washington, DC American Psychiatric Association (2014). Reference Reviews, 28(3), pp.36-37.
Gilman, S., King, H., Porter, R., Rousseau, G. and Showalter, E. (2019). Hysteria Beyond Freud. University of California Press.
Goetz, C.G. (2016) Charcot, hysteria, and simulated disorders. (Handbook of Clinical Neurology, Vol 139 (3rd series) Functional Neurologic Disorders
Janet, P. (1920). The Major Symptoms of Hysteria (2nd ed.). New York: Macmillan.
Kanaan , R.A.A. (2016) Freud’s hysteria and its legacy. (Handbook of Clinical Neurology, Vol 139 (3rd series) Functional Neurologic Disorders
King, H. (2019). Hysteria from Hippocrates. [online] Mistaking histories.
MacDonald, M., Bradwell, S., Jorden, E. and Swan, J. (1991). Witchcraft and hysteria in Elizabethan England. London: Routledge.
Micale, M. (2008). Hysterical men. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Micale, M. (1993). On the “Disappearance” of Hysteria: A Study in the Clinical Deconstruction of a Diagnosis. Isis, 84(3), pp.496-526.
Slater, E. (1965). Diagnosis of “Hysteria.” BMJ, 1(5447), pp.1395-1399.
Stone, J. (2005). Eliot Slater’s myth of the non-existence of hysteria. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 98(12), pp.547-548.
Stone, J. (2016) Neurologic approaches to hysteria, psychogenic and functional disorders from the late 19th century onwards (Handbook of Clinical Neurology, Vol 139 (3rd series) Functional Neurologic Disorders
Trimble, M., Reynolds, E.H. (2016) A Brief History of Hysteria: From the Ancient to the Modern (Handbook of Clinical Neurology, Vol 139 (3rd series) Functional Neurologic Disorders
Yealland, L. (1918). Hysterical disorders of warfare. London: Macmillan and Co., Limited.
Philosophy
Dennett, D. (2017). From Bacteria to Bach and Back: The Evolution of Minds. Penguin Books.
Descartes, R. Meditations on First Philosophy. 1641.
Friston, K. (2023) Consciousness is not a thing, but a process of inference: Aeon Essays, Aeon. Aeon Magazine. Available at: https://aeon.co/essays/consciousness-is-not-a-thing-but-a-process-of-inference (Accessed: January 9, 2023).
Merleau-Ponty, M. (2012). The world of perception. London: Routledge.
Nagel, T. (1974). What Is It Like to Be a Bat?. The Philosophical Review, 83(4), 435. doi: 10.2307/2183914
Seth, A. (2019). The hard problem of consciousness is a distraction from the real one. Aeon Essays.
FND Portal 