- Some report that their negative affective states can worsen their motor symptoms
- alexithymia
- Experiencing autonomic arousal in the absence of a perceived negative affect

Emotion Correlated Symptoms of FND

Individuals experience  many attention difficulties
- Attentional perseveration
- Difficulty attending to unaffected body parts
- Disruptions to sustained and selective attention
- Inefficient or impaired attentional shifting
- Involuntary attentional biases

Distorted Attention in FND

Cedarville University

It is a multi network problem in the brain across multiple brain circuits that describes involuntary sensory and motor symptoms caused by the voluntary motor or somatosensory nervous system.


Functional Neurological Disorder (FND)

Drane, D. L., Fani, N., Hallett, M., Khalsa, S. S., Perez, D. L., & Roberts, N. A. (2021). A framework for understanding the pathophysiology of functional neurological disorder. CNS Spectrums, 26(6), 555-561–561. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1092852920001789

A framework for understanding the pathophysiology of functional neurological disorder

- Functional seizure disorder
- Functional movement disorder (FMD)
- Functional cognitive disorder

Disorders Related to Functional Neurological Disorder (FND)

How Abnormalities Interact to Produce FND Symptoms

The magnitude of experienced childhood abuse correlates with
  - Symptom Severity
  - insecure attachment
  - Poor Prognosis
  - Limbic-motor circuit connectivity
  - Neuro-endocrine abnormalities

Impact of Childhood Trauma on FND

Factors that underlie the pathophysiology of FND:
- The occurrence of stressful events
- Elevation of biological stress markers
- Greater perceived stress
- Lack of awareness of stress currently being experienced

Stress & FND

- Increased emotional Reactivity
- Heightened Arousal & Avoidance
- Impaired top-down emotion regulation
- Deficits in emotional awareness
- Aberrant salience processing,
- Errant activation of learned/innate defensive responses

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