Ecological Niches of Illness Synchronic and Diachronic Dynamics of Symptom Experience
This project focuses on the processes underlying symptom perception with a view towards improving health outcomes.
Clinicians have known for a long time that symptom experience does not always track the extent of damage or disease involved. In some cases, such as functional neurological disorder, the two diverge dramatically, but the possibility of varying degrees of mismatch applies more generally. The leading inferential view of symptom perception provides a plausible account of the formation of illness experience. However, more needs to be done to understand the broader contributions to the causal dynamics—both synchronic and diachronic.
Urte Laukaityte intends to connect cognitive (neuro)science research with historical inquiry, building on Ian Hacking's proposal of ecological niches of illness1. While a helpful notion to conceptually organize the various factors involved, it has not been adopted widely due to the specificity of its original formulation. Given her interdisciplinary training, Urte will synthesize disparate research literatures to develop richer, more apt concepts, which could help alleviate some of the immense burden of persistent symptoms.
1 Hacking, I. (1998). Mad travelers: Reflections on the reality of transient mental illnesses. University of Virginia Press.