ABSTRACT:

The problematic of apathy has received increased attention over the last decade. A review of the

prominent publications on the subject has outlined two main questions awaiting clarification: the first one asks whether apathy should be recognized as a stand-alone syndrome; the second one asks whether apathy is an executive or an emotional manifestation. Starting with some historical considerations on the concept of motivation, we present a review of the definitions that have traditionally been given to apathy, before providing a report of the etiology, clinical manifestations, and assessment of apathy. We then distinguish apathy as a symptom from apathy as a syndrome, before seeing how the somatic-marker hypothesis provides a means to understand and link the executive to the emotional manifestations of apathy.