Schizophrenia brain fault 'found'

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More pieces of the schizophrenia puzzle emerging?

Schizophrenia brain fault 'found'

Communication between brain cells may be poorer in schizophrenia
Scientists say they have identified faulty brain waves that may explain the symptoms of schizophrenia.
Cells in the brain that exchange information about the environment and form mental impressions were less active in people with schizophrenia.

This might explain and help treat the hallucinations and disordered thinking people with schizophrenia experience, says the Harvard Medical School team.

The study appears in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

There was a pretty dramatic difference.

Dr Robert McCarley,
Lead researcher

Researchers looked at the brain wave patterns of 20 people with schizophrenia and 20 healthy volunteers.

The study participants were asked to look at either of two images containing four 'Pac-man' figures - circles with a quarter missing.

In one image, the four shapes were arranged to optically suggest a square in the centre. The participants were asked to press a button to show if they perceived a square or not.

At the same time, the scientists monitored the participants' brain waves using EEG, which gives a trace of the brain's electrical activity.

Both groups were able to respond to the images within a second, but those with schizophrenia made more errors and took about 200 milliseconds longer to process the image.

Brain waves

When the researchers looked at the brain wave patterns they found the patients with schizophrenia showed no activity in a certain wave band when performing the button-pushing task.

However, the healthy volunteers had visible gamma wave activity, indicating that their brains were processing the visual information to guide their response.

Brain waves
Delta waves below 4 hertz occur during sleep
Alpha waves 8-13 hertz occur at relaxed, quiet times
Beta waves 13-30 hertz occur when we are actively thinking
Gamma waves 30-100 hertz involved in higher mental activity

Lead researcher Dr Robert McCarley said: "There was a pretty dramatic difference. The schizophrenics did not show this gamma-band response at all.

"If the most efficient communication between assemblies of neurons is at 40 hertz, and the schizophrenics are using a lower frequency, it's likely they have defective communication between cell assemblies and brain regions."......

Full story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3991925.stm

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That is very interesting. Thankyou for posting it. I would like to read the original research report. IN psychology, we were told that it was related to enlarged ventricles. Our profs + text books also put a heavy emphasis on difficulties with processing stimulis.

Just posting so that I can boot this thread upwards, if anybody wants to discuss it..

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Schizophrenia brain fault 'found'

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