Brain Abnormalities and Schizophrenia

The existing etiology of schizophrenic psychosis is comfort a dream despite large studies on the amour of the chief. Studies of the brain through neuroimaging pose revealed that frontage cortex, impermanent lobe, and exchange cortical structures be elusive. Some of abnormalities in the brain of insane patients overwhelm enlarged ventricles, reduced garishness of anterior cortex, temporal lobe cortex, and sub cortical structures wish well com/psychology-exam-3/hippocampus and amygdala. These abnormalities let been persistently inform in insane patients and this shows that they be not functioning inadequately.Some of these abnormalities argon present at the nonplus and near even before the onset of psychosis and this is in support of neurodevelopment of guess of schizophrenic psychosis. The key neurotransmitter in dementia praecox is dopamine however, there are another(prenominal)s much(prenominal) as serotonin and glutamate which are also thought to pl ay a role. dementia praecox is an inherited condition, although genetic look has not come up with a put across conclusion on this issue whitethorn be be let of the complexity of genetic involvement.Despite the fact that brain abnormalities are still not very kick the bucket in schizophrenic psychosis, the examine is continuously pilling and this is driving towards a complicated disease of the brain net that is affected by genetically mediated developmental abnormality. Introduction Neuropathologists induce been compound in research on schizophrenia for about hundred years. Despite the length of the research, the neuropathogy of the trouble oneself is still not clear.Although they support made some steps in their quest since the beginning when they believed that it was a functional psychosis without structural basis, the main cause of the chronic deflect is still illusive. With the technological advancement in science, researchers feel come to a special K purpose in patients diagnosed with schizophrenia and the common finding is brain abnormalities. These discoveries have made the researchers to wonder if the cause of schizophrenia is brain abnormalities and how the abnormalities arise.Despite recovery of some brain abnormalities in patients suffering from schizophrenia, more or less scientists maintained that some of the abnormalities established are quite slight and some of them are not common in all schizophrenic patients and to authorise exclusively in people with schizophrenia. Although these patients have structural pathologies in their brains, the real abnormalities do not coincide with the disease duration. Some of the abnormalities realized hold on the same throughout the development of the disease (Bhogal, 2002).Understanding of the abnormalities of the brain in schizophrenia is among the challenges currently facing the medical community. The numerous symptoms associated with schizophrenia points at the involvement of various reg ions of the brain or even a widespread of nedeucerk or system. Conventional approaches of neurological disorders much(prenominal) as lesion studies or convey mortem examinations have defied efforts to chthonicstand the brain pathology in schizophrenia. Just identical other fields of medicine, luck and destiny have help make study(ip) steps in discoveries like dopamine theory and anti psychotics which are used in the management of the disorder.Modern research in neuroscience such as neuroimaging has aided in improving the foundation knowledge of the disorder and has uphold the hope that complete understanding of the disorder will be realized in the future. In this paper, I am going to summarize the major(ip) brain abnormalities found in schizophrenia through neuroimaging (Haren, 2004). Just like other complicated diseases, there are numerous theories on schizophrenia as compared to facts. The initially neurodevelopment theory points at abnormalities in fetal brain development as the cause of the failure of brain functions in wee adulthood.A series of training such as augmentd rate of obstetrical complications, minor physical abnormalities, neurologic mild signs, and slight behavioral abnormalities in children who later suffer from schizophrenia. This model is quite relevant to the development of schizophrenia in particular but also for other neuropsychiatric disorders (Bhogal, 2002). The major drawback of this model is that the prevalence of these signs in the non affected population is quite hearty therefore the positive predictive value in the development of schizophrenia is not convincing.The disease unremarkably begins at adolescent or beforehand(predicate) childhood and earlyish adulthood and this indicates brain maturational problem during that measure or before the appearance of psychosis. Excessive synaptic or dendritic pruning during the time of onset of the disorder has been suggested as one of the capability mechanism explaining the o nset of psychosis in adolescent or in early childhood, although the biology underlying this stage is still not very clear (Lawrie & Abukmeil, 1998).Neurodegenerative model is based on active biologic processes that may be going on during the prodromal period or the usually prolonged period of untreated psychosis. Development of the disorder is also conjugated to environmental factors such as illicit drug use and psychosocial adjudicate which are considered as potential secondary triggers which may be ensuant the beginning and the start of schizophrenia. The initial researchers believed that schizophrenia is associated with brain pathology.Emergence of imaging techniques such as magnetized ringing imaging (MRI) and computed tomography s merchant shipning (CTS) have seriously contributed to the detailed study of the brain. Through computed tomography brain abnormalities such as enlarged ventricles and reduced total brain volume have been reported in schizophrenic individuals and these findings were later confirmed by magnetic resonance imaging (Bhogal, 2002). Studies of the brain structures have also been made short through improvement in segmentation techniques coupled with the use of MRI.These techniques passel be used to identify hoar from white matter and step of their volume. These also contributed to a more focused investigations of specific regions of the brain such as temporal, frontal lobes, and subcortical structures. Some of the consistent findings in these regions complicate alteration in structures such as hippocampus, amygdala, superior temporal swirl, and atomic number 78 temporale (Lawrie & Abukmeil, 1998).Lateral temporal neocortical areas where primary auditory and auditory associations are located are the places of interest in schizophrenia since they are snarly in thought processes. Most of the studies in the superior temporal gyrus in schizophrenic patients have always discovered reduced volumes of grey matter in the initi al stages of the disorder together with those individuals who are genetically at risk of developing schizophrenia such as way out of schizophrenic patients. different structures of the brain which have also been reported to be abnormally small in schizophrenic patients include medial temporal structures such as hippocampus, amygdala, and parahippocampus gyri. These structures are also reported to be modify in other psychiatric disorders like mood disorders and post traumatic show disorder (Lawrie & Abukmeil, 1998). Injuries sustained at the time of birth such as anoxia may be associated to hippocampus reduction and this is possibly collectable to neurodevelopmental abnormality.The finding is also common among concordant twins who had birth injuries. median(a) temporal volume reductions have been discovered in people who are genetically at risk of developing schizophrenia. Reductions in the grey matter in the temporal regions of the brain have also been ascertained in people who are classified as having prodromal features of schizophrenia who have later on developed psychotic symptoms during the follow up (Haren, 2004). The super developed region of the brain in man is the frontal lobe.It is involved in the modulations of higher brain functions such as planning, attention, and working memory. behavioral and cognitive deficits like lack of motivation, defects in executive functions, Wisconsin card add sorting test and spatial working memory points at frontal lobe functional abnormalities in schizophrenic patients (Lawrie, 1999). Decreased blood flow to the frontal lobe is a common finding in schizophrenia. Despite the fact that this finding is not consisted, it can also be attributed to the complex nature of the region, it has been observed though quite slight.Basal ganglia which contain caudate, putamen, and globus pallidus are involved in information processing in the cortical and subcortical networks involved in consolidation of cognition, emotion , and motor function. These structures have been reported to be enlarged in patients exploitation the conventional antipsychotics and this can lead to a conclusion that dopamine blockades causes an increase in volume of the above structures. Psychosis patients who have not used every antipsychotics are reported to have a smaller caudate volume which implies that caudate may be involved in the development of psychoses.Thalamus acts as the regulatory board for sensory signals and has reciprocal connections to the frontal lobe. It has been suggested that the connections between these two structures are associated with schizophrenia. Thalamus is a bit difficult to measure using MRI, although the findings are inconsistent, smaller thalamus have always been reported in schizophrenic patients. Other anatomic abnormalities in schizophrenia include corpus callosum which is altered some(prenominal)(prenominal) in shape and structure therefore hurly burly in the consolidation between the hemispheres.In most humans, brain functions are lateralized with the left cerebrum being dominantly involved in language. There are proposals that developmental abnormalities of language, peculiar functions of the human beings, and its handedness which is genetically mediated may be one of the causes of schizophrenia (Bhogal, 2002). lay lobe findings of smaller superior temporal gyrus and hippocampus have been reported to be in the left cerebrum and loss of normal asymmetry of the left superior temporal gyrus being a bit large that the right has been reported in patients suffering from schizophrenia (Staal et.al, 2000). In the meta depth psychology study of laterality in schizophrenia, the researchers who were involved in this study reason out that there is a strong proof for decreased cerebral lateralization in schizophrenia more so in the language cortex. We can therefore summarize that structural imaging studies have discovered evidence of extensive anatomic alterations in the brain regions of schizophrenic patients.The regions highly altered in these patients include those mediating higher mental functions like thought, cognition, effect, and language both early in the illness and those at risks of developing the disorder like children born to schizophrenic patients (Haren, 2004). Synapses and susceptibility genes Neuroimaging studies are in support of the disaster of neurodevelopmental abnormality in schizophrenia, neuronal, molecular, and neurochemical mechanisms underlying these brain abnormalities are not conclusive.High profile neuropathologic studies have revealed losses in synapse density and relatively normal or elevated neuronal numbers in schizophrenia, which indicates that the main defect may be synapse justness. This discovery has elicited search for genes that may be associated with synapse integrity by the use of DNA microarray techniques. Post mortem findings on the patients with schizophrenia revealed under expression of a family o f synapse related genes (Bhogal, 2002). Genetic factors are the main factors listed as being associated with schizophrenia, however the exact genes involved in susceptibility is still a puzzle.Although the initial studies on finding these genes was not successful, current studies have implicated several genes in the development of schizophrenia and some of the genes include dysbindin-1, neuregulin-1, d-amino acid oxidase, its activator DAOA, and the regulator of G protein signaling 4. Recent proposals indicated that synapses, especially glutamatergic ones top executive be the site of initial abnormalities in schizophrenia with downstream disruption of neural circuitry and subsequent effect on other neurotransmitters (Lawrie, 1999). ConclusionsIt has become clear that the early scientists were right in their suspicion that the brain is involved in schizophrenia. This evidence cannot be disputed despite the fact that there is no comprehensive information on the etiology and pathophys iology of the disorder. The brain abnormalities in schizophrenia appear to be distributed in extensive areas supporting the fact that schizophrenia is a disorder associated with brain connections. We are still very farther from understanding some of the major neuropsychiatric disorders such as Alzheimers disease.The molecular, physiologic, and neurochemical mechanisms underlying schizophrenia continues to evade our findings. Recent research on the disorder acts as the foundations for future fundamental discoveries on the nature of schizophrenia. References Bhogal, B. (2002). Physical ace Abnormality a Possible Cause of Schizophrenia. Retrieved on May 6, 2010 from http//serendip. brynmawr. edu/bb/neuro/neuro02/web1/bbhogal. hypertext mark-up language Haren, N. E. M. (2004). Brain abnormalities in schizophrenia longitudinal and genetic aspects.Quebec s. n. Lawrie, S. (Jan. 4, 1999). Risk Of Schizophrenia Onset Linked To Brain Abnormalities. The Lancet. Lawrie, S. M. & Abukmeil, S. S. (1998). Brain abnormality in schizophrenia. A systematic and quantitative review of volumetric magnetic resonance imaging studies. The British Journal of Psychiatry 172. Staal, G. S. et. al. (2000). Structural Brain Abnormalities in Patients With Schizophrenia and Their Healthy Siblings. American Journal of Psychiatry, 157.