2-Minute Neuroscience: Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a potentially severe psychiatric condition that involves a variety of symptoms. In this video, I discuss the neuroscience of schizophrenia.

TRANSCRIPT:

Schizophrenia is a potentially severe psychiatric condition that involves a variety of symptoms. The symptoms of schizophrenia are often categorized as positive, negative, or cognitive. Positive symptoms involve the development of a behavior or thought pattern that isn’t normally present, such as hallucinations and/or delusions. Negative symptoms involve the loss of a normal function, and include lack of motivation, blunted emotion, or difficulty experiencing pleasure. Cognitive symptoms are those that affect someone’s ability to think clearly, and include deficits in attention, memory, and/or concentration.

The neuroscience of schizophrenia has been difficult to sort out, but a great deal of research has focused on neurotransmitter abnormalities at the root of the disorder. Dopamine has received much of this attention, with the general hypothesis being that dopamine activity is too high in certain parts of the brain in schizophrenia. This hypothesis was originally formulated based on the findings that drugs used to treat schizophrenia act to reduce dopamine activity, and drugs that increase dopamine levels (such as amphetamine) can induce behavior that in some ways resembles the psychotic states schizophrenic patients experience. The idea that increased dopamine activity plays a role in schizophrenic symptoms is now supported by a large body of evidence.

However, dopamine irregularities alone do not seem to explain all the symptoms of schizophrenia. Glutamate abnormalities, such as dysfunctional glutamate receptors, also occur in schizophrenia, and these may be capable of accounting for some negative and cognitive symptoms—something that dopamine levels have been less successful in explaining. Additionally, it has been proposed that dysfunction in glutamate systems may precede and lead to the dopamine hyperactivity observed in schizophrenia. While it’s uncertain what causes these neurotransmitter abnormalities to emerge in the first place, it’s generally believed that schizophrenia can be traced back to disruptions in early neural development that occur due to the influence of both genetic and environmental factors.

REFERENCES:

Howes O, McCutcheon R, Stone J. Glutamate and dopamine in schizophrenia: an update for the 21st century. J Psychopharmacol. 2015 Feb;29(2):97-115. doi: 10.1177/0269881114563634. Epub 2015 Jan 13. PMID: 25586400; PMCID: PMC4902122.

Howes OD, Murray RM. Schizophrenia: an integrated sociodevelopmental-cognitive model. Lancet. 2014 May 10;383(9929):1677-1687. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(13)62036-X. Epub 2013 Dec 6. PMID: 24315522; PMCID: PMC4127444.

Kahn RS, Sommer IE, Murray RM, Meyer-Lindenberg A, Weinberger DR, Cannon TD, O'Donovan M, Correll CU, Kane JM, van Os J, Insel TR. Schizophrenia. Nat Rev Dis Primers. 2015 Nov 12;1:15067. doi: 10.1038/nrdp.2015.67. PMID: 27189524.

Owen MJ, Sawa A, Mortensen PB. Schizophrenia. Lancet. 2016 Jul 2;388(10039):86-97. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(15)01121-6. Epub 2016 Jan 15. PMID: 26777917; PMCID: PMC4940219.

[jessikadewitt]

I really hope in the future someone discovers a cure for this and would save so much pain

[Yournansaman]

My father has this, the attention thing is very true, like first he’s talking about video games, then somehow corrupted governments, and then shifting over to how china’s gonna take over the world, (we aren’t even Chinese).

[Psychx_]

Very nice that you also talk about glutamate. This neurotransmitter and its receptors become of increasing interest in medical research. Glutamate can influence the brain's dopamine levels and vice versa via feedback mechanisms. This may be why regular antipsychotics help for some, but not all symptoms of schizophrenia.

[Wildboy]

this makes alot of sense, because ive developed slight symptoms after becoming sober... ive definatly damaged my dopemine receptors over the last 15 years... well i just gotta stay healthy, and avoid the crazy thoughts :) good luck everyone

[mclovins]

This made me feel alot less of a burden and abnormality. Thank you.

[matthewmcmahon]

Clear presentation, well done.
To anyone experiencing symptoms that brought you to this video, or seeking help for what the medical world terms "schizophrenia", there are other perspectives on these illnesses with a more modern body of evidence.

[fantomeduchateaux]

There is an interesting focus on schizophrenia as a neurodevelopmental disorder, associated with impaired development of blood vessels and vascularization of the brain and neural tube too! 🔥❤

[Emagened]

My father is epiliptic patient and drank a lot of alcohol his whole life, and now at his 50s he developed schizophrenia,
He sits at one place and stares at something for long time..
He will talk about past things as if it is happening at the moment.
He have difficulty sleeping
His speech is not clear
He doubts his family members are planning to harm him or take his life.
and many more things is happening...
Pray for my father 😢

[benjaminro]

One thing that bothers me is that negative symptoms caused by schizophrenia ''cause'' the blunted emotion and difficulty experiencing pleasure. But the medications used to treat the disorder are dopamine partial agonists ( aripripazole, rxulti etc) or antagonist (olanzapine, clozapine). It just does not make sense, since dopamine has a lot to do with feeling pleasure.

[alanparana]

It’s a very serious problem that disabilities are defined so broadly. You know what else fits these vast and many descriptions? ADHD, sleep deprivation, drug use, Hunger, anger, and literally everything else. They don’t know lmao

[iamlegend]

❤ please spread more awareness about mental health issue. I hv schizophrenia...i had a terrible past but now im recovering well, have my buisness owning a house family good social life😊 dont worry their is always hope when god wants

[Schizonoise]

the state of concentration is damaged
but sometimes it's the other way around

[akramkarim]

I read that dopamine receptor 2 is responsible for schizophrenia, but this receptor is inhibitor not stimulator, so it means the symptoms of schizophrenia are caused by inhibition in the brain not stimulation, any explanation ?

[kareendeveraux]

We have the year 2022, the dopamine hypothesis has been disproven several times and yet a video comes out, that promotes this... There are no increased dopamine levels in people with schizophrenia unless the brain has been messed up by those drugs that are supposed to help, which actually create schizophrenia.
Schizophrenia is usually a trauma reaction, mostly formed in childhood. Or created through drugs which include all the psychiatric drugs, too.

[maxternex]

I was subbed to this channel for this vid, thank you.

[ryanryanryanryanryan]

The thing they dont tell you is that enviromental factors can be passed on from parent to child just like genetic factors. I knew a kid once who lived in an area where all there was around his place was a bunch of metal fabricators and wielders, there was no real oppertunity to do anything other than that. So both his mother and the child grew up in the same place and could not afford to move. So naturaly they started displaying the same mental health problems. To help them they would probably need to be taken out of that place to a more opertunistic enviroment. Also when a child cannot rely on a parent of the oposite sex to know how to help them it can cause bad problems mental health wise. Like my mom, she tries but she realy is not a man and does not understand the problems i face. She is all i got, my fauther is not talking to me right now. But she does not make things easy for me when it comes to finding employment.

[neuroacademy]

hello, just wondering, how do you do your animations. i really like the unique style of your videos

[cherokeethomas]

I am asking this seriously:
At the end of the video the cause of schizophrenia was addressed. You explained that the dopamine imbalance/abnormality could be caused by both genetic and environmental influences. My question is: is it commonly known that the environmental influence could be trauma like for instance a sexual molestation event or am I way off base?

[bogdan.ivan.]

WOW, i just find your channel, nice work mister, keep it up.

[timothybell]

I saw "2" in the title and it coincided with a random spike in dopamine and now I believe that if I notice the number 2 it's a sign I'm going crazy.