A neural model of mentalization/mindfulness based psychotherapy

We introduce and implement a neural model for mentalization/mindfulness based psychotherapy. It uses Dan Levine's neural model of pathways for emotional-cognitive decision making, which is integrated with a competitive Hopfield network built up from the new concept of strong patterns for the six basic emotions and for mentalization or mindfulness. We adopt a particular form of Q-learning to reinforce the mentalizing/mindful pattern in the network, which represents the process of psychotherapy. In a successful course of therapy, the mentalizing/mindful pattern becomes the more dominant pattern compared to negative emotions and the brain makes decisions that are more deliberate and thoughtful than heuristic and automatic.

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