Abstract
Despite the fact that the term dissociation has been known for more than one century, only recent neurobiological research has uncovered its cause in the context of stressful traumatic experiences. In this overview we describe several neurobiological mechanisms which may be proffered to explain the physiological equivalent of the dissociation phenomenon, using examples of body size perception, analgesia and stress response in dissociative disorders, eating disorders and borderline personality disorders and other psychiatric disorders.
Some recent important findings have shown that the level of dissociation may vary with the level of stress hormones during the development of stress dynamics and may result in different adaptive or clinically maladaptive reactions.