Memory

This was a post I started to write the minute I finished the Alzheimer's post, and I wasn't too pleased with it. I just got round to posting it. Try and enjoy!

Many people believe that memory is a rapid storing of information like you hitting CTRL + S to save an image to your computer, and recalling is like opening it from your file explorer. (Sorry, I hate Macs)

The truth is, it’s complex. It’s like when you try to move your mouth. It seems like one fluid motion, but in reality is 43 muscles working in conjunction. This is how your brain does it, through a process often called distributed processing.

Currently, the leading neuroscientists believe that memory is a series of complicated actions done by your brain. Basically, each memory is divvied up into several parts, such as speech, sights, sounds, sensory emotions, and such. Each part of your brain responsible for that action then encodes the parts they receive and store it for later reference.

So, imagine you are trying to remember sitting on a beach chair. Everything you see, namely the sea, (or ocean you specific people), part of your legs, hopefully some sand, some other people unless it’s winter, and the sky will be saved in your visual cortex, the people talking around you will be stored in your language areas, and such for temperature and feelings.

While recalling this information, you access that encoded data and decode it to reform that memory. That is the basic principle behind memory: instead of a file cabinet, it’s a torrent system.

Why? Well, say you want to remember stuff, but half of your brain is sliced off. Would you like to remember half of your memories or all of them just with less detail? Ignore the fact that you would die if half of your brain was cleaved off.

But wait! There’s more! There is more than a single kind of memory! There are explicit, implicit, episodic, semantic, retrospective, prospective, and short term memory.

Explicit (declarative) memory is where you consciously recall the information. It isn’t subconscious like implicit (procedural). Explicit is generally for facts, or things that can be stored and retrieved at will. An example would be knowing where the struts are on a guitar. You consciously recall that information.

Implicit memory would be like just knowing how to play the guitar itself because you’ve done it before. It’s also known as procedural due to it strengthening through repetition, known in general as LTP (long term potentiation).

Explicit memory can be divided into two types: episodic and semantic. Episodic memories are specific events from your own past, such as places you’ve been to.

Semantic is a memory that you acquire throughout your life. It may have had a personal context earlier, but now is just a placeholder for knowledge.

Semantic memory derives from episodic memory, while episodic supports semantic. The main difference is that semantic mainly occurs in the frontal and temporal cortexes, whilst episodic is mostly centered in the hippocampus, and stored in the neocortex.

Memories are scattered through the brain as stated, and are all retrieved to form an episode in the hippocampus.

An interesting subset of memory is something known as “flashbulb memory”, a memory of a particular event and its details, of an event that is particularly surprising or upsetting. These are speculated to be highly resistant to being forgotten, possibly due to the strong emotions associated with them.

Memory is important in our complex, crazy life. Without it, we wouldn't have anything we take for granted (except the earth).

www.sciencedaily.com

science.howstuffworks.com

www.bbc.com

www.human-memory.net

www.livescience.com

Alzheimer's Disease

Seems like I've been forgetting the blog. Well, Alzheimer's disease this week. Concise sources this time.

Alzheimer’s is a serious disease affecting 44 million people in the world. Though not from birth, it is typically considered worse than other lifelong diseases. It strikes late in life, but takes its toll: the disease is a progressive destruction of brain cells responsible for memory and important mental functions.

In the beginning the disease may seem to be a small matter, leading to people forgetting childhood memories, but can quickly escalate into forgetting loved ones or having massive personality shifts.

Asides from the memory loss aspect, Alzheimer's is also the most common cause of dementia. Dementia is an extension of what Alzheimer’s does: it’s a collective group of brain disorders causing loss of intelligence and a sheer drop in social skills.

The fact that only 1 in 4 cases are diagnosed makes the disease worse. What does this disease do?

It creates a plethora of problems for those affected, such as increasingly worse memory lapses leading to misplacing items, forgetting conversations, repeating statements, and forgetting family members.

Alzheimer’s can cause difficulty in concentrating and thinking, especially with math. Though it's not like math is ever without difficulty for the common folk. Multitasking becomes difficult and finance, bills, and checkbook managing becomes hard. The cause of these last few disabilities may be due to the decrease in mathematical skills by the disease.

Responses to ‘normal’ problems becomes a problem, and planning becomes an issue as well. As the disease progresses, people may begin to forget basic tasks such as dressing and bathing. FOr now, let’s forget that once those two things were unessential.

The disease can also lead to changes in emotions, leading to depression, apathy, mood swings, often changes in sleeping habits, and delusions. Alzheimer’s works backwards from modern memories in its path of destruction, and so abilities gained early in life are protected until the later ends of disease progression.

In its last stages, it can lead to additional unrelated health problems such as aspiration (inhaling food or liquid into lungs), pneumonia, fractures, malnutrition or dehydration, and issues in balance and bower control.

Alzheimer’s patients require extensive care as well, and an estimated $605 billion are spent yearly for Alzheimer’s patients, equivalent to 1% of the world GDP.

Currently, scientists believe that Alzheimer’s is a combination of three factors: genetic, lifestyle, and environmental. This is most of the time, applying to the majority (95%) of people, as there are some purely genetic causes.

The effect of the disease is clear, it damages connections in the brain that are responsible for memory.  Memory works by creating bonds in your brain. When your brain receives constant messages the information is stored through a process called long-term potentiation (LTP). The strength of the memory created is determined through the amount of times the neuron recording the memory is bombarded with the same neurotransmitter signal.

A memory will be stronger the more signals you have to remember it. Alzheimer’s damages the connections created through the brain remembering stuff. The brain will eventually have much less connections and healthy brain cells.

Ooh, should have done memory before this. Well, that’s next!

As disease progression reaches a peak, more brain cells die, and leads to significant brain shrinkage. Doctors examining Alzheimer’s brain tissue under a microscope, they see two abnormalities characteristic of Alzheimer’s: plaques and tangles.

Run! Or just go to a doctor. Your teeth and hair have begun to invade your brain!

No, plaques are proteins, not bacteria. They are, according to the Mayo Clinic, ‘clumps of a protein called beta-amyloid (that) may damage and destroy brain cells in several ways, including interfering with cell-to-cell communication.’ This could be a cause of memory weakening.

Also, tangles aren’t like hair tangles in a literal sense, except they are. A protein called tau is necessary for internal support and a transport system to carry nutrients through long extensions in the brain. Tangles occur when the threads of tau twist into abnormal tangles in brain cells, leading to the failure of the transport system. This is a major factor in the death of brain cells.

Are there trends in Alzheimer’s diagnosis? Surprisingly, yes!

There are some risk factors, including but not limited to age, genetics, lineage, gender, lifestyle, location, and social engagement.

Age is the greatest risk factor for Alzheimer’s. Though not part of the normal ageing cycle, your risk increases significantly over 65. The rate of dementia basically doubles every decade after 60.

Genetics can lead to early onset Alzheimer’s as early as 30, but genetic studies show that your risk for Alzheimer’s is considerably higher if your first degree relatives have the disease. There are rare mutations in three genes that almost guarantee Alzheimer’s, though this accounts for less that 5% of diagnosed people.

The gene mutation leading to the highest risk for Alzheimer’s is apolipoprotein e4 (APoE4). If a patient has this mutation, his child has a 50/50 chance for receiving it and thus having a high risk of ALzheimer’s.

People with Down Syndrome have a high chance of developing the disease. In their case, the symptoms appear earlier: up to 20 years earlier than the general population.

Women have a slightly higher chance of developing Alzheimer’s partly due to life expectancy.

Those with mild cognitive impairment have memory problems as expected for age, but not classified as dementia. However, people with MCI do have a higher chance of being diagnosed with dementia later on.

Also, people with past head trauma have a higher risk of Alzheimer’s. Lack of exercise, obesity, high blood pressure and cholesterol and smoking can all increase your chance of developing Alzheimer’s.

Location seemes to have a difference in concentration: the disease is most common in Western Europe, and is least prevalent in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The major question is, “is there a cure, my knowledged doctors?” Well, they are working on it.

Here enters Antioquia, the largest concentration of people carrying the Apolipoprotein e4 mutation in the world.

A family here, headed by mother Cecilia and seven children and many grandchildren lost their patriarch, Alonso to Alzheimer’s. He carries the APoE4 switch, and has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. His family acts as his caregiver.

When he first began to show signs of memory loss, the doctor suggested exercise and vitamins, but his condition didn’t get better.

He knew what was going on, and asked about why his memory was dying. His family has a high chance of Alzheimer’s, and wish to know what causes it.

The Banner Alzheimer’s Institute wanted to try removing amyloids from the brain to prevent Alzheimer’s, but they couldn’t tell for certain if someone had the disease or not. This was a crucial piece of information because they believed that if you administered the medicine too late, when Alzheimer’s had already begun, it would have no effect.

They went to Ken Kosik, a man who had been studying the family in Antioquia for fifteen years. They wanted to try their medicine and prevent the disease.

They started a double-blind study: 300 people in total; 200 with Alzheimer’s guaranteed and 100 without. Half the people with the mutation will receive medicine and the other half harmless placebo. This method was meant to ensure that nobody participating in the study would know their condition of the disease.

The participants would check in every two weeks for five years, in order to see if the people with the medicine will have less amyloid buildup than those with the placebo.

This is an ongoing study, and is expected to run till 2021. This is just the start, though, as if this doesn’t work it means something else will have to be targeted in the body.

There are two drugs that are made to manage the symptoms of Alzheimer’s, if not prevent: cholinesterase inhibitors, and memantine (namenda).

Cholinesterase inhibitors work by boosting levels of a neurotransmitter that is depleted in Alzheimer’s, in order to increase cell-to-cell communication. This improvement is modest, but can also treat agitation and depression.

Memantine slows the progression of moderate to severe Alzheimer’s in another brain cell communication network.

The two are often paired together to slow the progression of Alzheimer’s, but it isn’t a cure, and the progression is inevitable.

Currently, 1 in 3 seniors die with Alzheimer’s, and this disease is on an unstoppable rampage. Perhaps the future generation will solve the problem. But for now, the disease is here to stay, and knowledge of it will help those afflicted.

www.mayoclinic.org

www.alzheimers.net

www.sciencedaily.com

CBS documentary series 60 Minutes episode The Alzheimer’s Laboratory (Nov. 27 2016)

Boats: The Firsts

This is a topic my friend suggested me to write on. Originally I was going to write about all the different types, but I decided to break this up. So, what you get here is the first of many: (how ironic, the first is on the firsts) the first ships and boats ever.

Boats were once the only way to cross oceans. They still are a major factor in many economies such as fishing and cargo hauling. Now, some boats are houses and others hold aircraft. How did these come to be? What are the principles that they work on? Those questions will be answered. But not know.

There is a large list of possible candidates for the first ship. They range from areas such as Egypt and England.

National Geographic originally wrote about a ship on March 7, 2006. Though the data is old, it is still credible. Written by Richard A. Lovett, it details about a finding of massive wooden planks, ropes, and cargo boxes found in caverns near the Red Sea. Lovett states that the find indicates that ancient Egyptian mariners were on the sea as early 4,000 years ago, and on voyages spanning more than 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles) each way. The ship previously believed to have been the first was only dated to be 1,300 years old, and was in fragments. This was a monumental find for the field.

The Egyptians were well known as a people who cultivated the Nile, they were people who thrived on a desert, and they were known to have placed barges across the river to transport objects downstream. This ship is believed to have carried sailors to bring incense and other treasure to Egypt, probably to a foreign land called Punt, or God’s Land.

Steven Snape, an Egyptologist at Britain’s University of a Liverpool, though not involved in the work, said the discovery was “very exciting.” He says that historians have long known about the Egyptian travels to Punt, but have debated whether they got their by land or sea. This finding gave conclusive evidence supporting their seafaring culture.

Periodically, pharoahs would send missions of thousands of soldiers across deserts to a port on the Red Sea.

Initially archeologists believed that finding the remains of a vessel couldn't be found off of the coast, even though archeologists knew of the ports location. This idea was overturned in December of 2005 when Cheryl Ward, an anthropologist at Florida State University and other archeologists found pieces of the vessels in six caverns near the port.

Surprisingly the boats there weren't the oldest found. At a now-submerged excavation site called Bouldnor Cliff, a relic almost 8,000 years old was found 11 metres under water. This was the oldest boat building site known.

The oldest planked ships found before the Bouldnor Cliff site were only 4,500 years old. No biggie, only 180 generations. Bouldnor Cliff changed it up.

Interestingly, the site of Bouldnor Cliff was initially found when a lobster lobbed Stone Age flints while burrowing. We support anyone lobbying for the protection of lobsters. They truly help us in the betterment of society.

Garry Momber and his team of underwater archeologists from the Maritime Archeology Trust made some of the most interesting underwater discoveries. Momber says he took an underwater double take after he saw what seemed like woodworking tools.

His team had to wait for two years to revive sufficient funds, and when they got back they discovered remarkable things. Garry says, “We went back to the same area… and saw pieces of worked wood sticking out… among the tangle of the tree roots. They were flat and trimmed, and… you could see they had been shaped by human hands.”

This wasn't enough to discern for certain if the wood was human worked. To find out, they excavated a 2 by 3 metre area.

“We started finding charcoal and the occasional flint tool, … we uncovered wood chippings, well-crafted functional items, and dozens of pieces of well preserved timber,” says Garry.

Some had been shaped by flint tools and others scorched. From the charcoal and heat resistant tools, it was easy to infer that the people were heating wood to work with it easier, but their true motives remain unknown.

Most of the timber had stayed interconnected, but still their function was unknown, till they found a 1 metre piece of wood tangentially split, that is, cutting a lot into two halves, then splitting the top half in half created a tangent and so forth to get planks. This can be seen in the image below.

This may not seem spectacular, until you realize this wasn't seen for another 2,500 years.

While Bouldnor Cliff has the oldest planked boat shipyard, the Netherlands’ 10,000 year old dugout canoe known as the Pesse canoe holds the title of the oldest boat. It was discovered in 1955, and was named ‘Pesse’ after where it was found, near the town called Pesse.

The canoe was a dugout, a boat made from a hollowed out tree trunk. It's dimensions measure around 3 metres long by 0.4 metres wide. The canoe was likely dug out with flint or animal bone tools during the Stone Age.

This type of ship, a dugout, was fairly common: they were used in Africa, Asia, the Americas, and Europe. Some were larger than the one found, ranging from 8 metres, like the five ton dugout found in Pangasinan, Philippines to the 18 metre long ones that were used for long oceanic journeys. Those on the larger end could carry up to 80 people.

Dugouts weren't just floatations devices. They often had outriggers to make them more stable, and sails for travel. In fact, dugouts are still used around the world for fishing.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/03/0307_060307_egypt_ships.html

https://digventures.com/2016/06/has-the-worlds-oldest-boat-building-site-been-discovered-near-the-isle-of-wight/

http://www.maritimearchaeologytrust.org/bouldnor

http://www.outdoorrevival.com/old-ways/not-finished-history-canoe.html

http://www.stonepages.com/news/archives/005666.html

http://www.alearningfamily.com/main/pesse-canoe-worlds-oldest-boat/

Picture credits:

Tangential splitting: http://www.riven-oak.appspot.com/neolithic.html

Tsar the All

Dinotsars! No, tsars. Tsars were rulers of Russia in the present day. Dinosaurs, I am sad to report to you, my dear friend, were wiped out a while ago. Quite a while ago. But yes, they were rulers. Without much ado, lets begin. This post was contributed by Atul Parida, a close friend of mine. Now, you probably can tell the layout is a bit different, as in shorter paragraphs, there are no breaks between lines, and, no sources.

The Tsarist Empire of Russia, as you can guess, was an autocratic dynasty of several kings (tsars or as we call them, czars) situated in present-day Russia. They ruled from the 14th century till the February Revolution of 1917. Now, as with all autocracies, they imposed certain limits and stumbles for the common people that resulted in their impoverishment but, unlike the French Autocracy, they also gave the people wonderful things that resulted in their basic well-being and more or less provided sufficient privileges to the people.

The first recognised Tsar was Tsar Ivan IV in 1547; ironically this was before the actual Russian Empire was founded in 1721 by Peter I. You may know Tsar Ivan IV as Ivan the Terrible, the person who massacred an entire district in Russia and treated the nobility very harshly. He built a small fortress in Moscow which later grew into the well-known seat of the Russian Government i.e. the Kremlin.

At this time, the Russian serfdom comprised of less than a third of present-day Russia, and was basically half of Europe until the Ural Mountains. It was known as Moscovia at the time; evidently, the capital of the empire was Moscow, which was then a small fort surrounded by a marsh.

After Ivan's death, there was a large power struggle which was called The Time of Troubles by the townsfolk. It was marked by repeated Polish intervention, and ended with the coronation of Mikhail Romanov in 1613, beginning the 300 year reign of the Romanov family.

During the rule of Tsar Mikhail, there were many wars between Poland and Russia, and after his death led to a large expansion in territory and the acquisition of Ukraine. The following rulers adopted a policy of expansion, leading to the conquest of Siberia and parts of the Chinese Empire.

After the conquest of Siberia, Russia became a massive empire, stretching from the Gulf of Finland to the Bering Strait. The consolidation of the Empire was essential to its survival and after a long power struggle between various members of the Romanov family, Peter I emerged victorious and in 1672, he was coronated. 

Peter I introduced various reforms based on European society. At the time, the Russian Empire was more of a Commonwealth of small tribes and serfs. After touring Western Europe, Peter reformed the Russians into a mainstream European society, and consolidated the Russian Commonwealth into the great Russian Empire, which lasted until the Bolsheviks took over.

Now, as with all empires, there was a period of uncertainty and an event catalysed the downfall of the Empire. For example, for France, it was the reign of Louis XVI and for the Romans, it was Caesar's attempted monarchy. For the Russian Empire, it was the assassination of Tsar Alexander II. Before discussing the downfall, let's see what exactly caused this event.

Tsar Alexander II wasn't a bad guy. He was a reformist and believed in the progression of Russian society. He was responsible for the sale of Alaska to the United States of America and was about to enact a Democratic Constitution before he was assassinated. Unfortunately, not all of his reforms were embraced by the people and later, a number of extremist groups emerged whose primary goal was to kill the Tsar, and succeed in arresting control of the Empire.

On 13th March 1881, Alexander II was assassinated by a group of extremists who killed him using a number of bombs while he was travelling in a carriage. The Tsar survived the first bomb which landed under his carriage but was killed by the second bomb, which landed at his feet and mutilated his legs. He was taken to the Winter Palace, where he died in the presence of his son Alexander and his grandson Nicholas, the latter of whom became Tsar Nicholas II, the last Tsar of Russia.

Seeing the demise of the Tsar, the later Tsars followed a policy of complete autocracy and introduced a spy network that was all-permeating throughout all layers of Russian society, as to prevent the outbreak of separatist groups and militants. This was introduced by the next Tsar in line, Alexander III, and under the guidance of the Soviet Union, evolved into the KGB. The last Tsars were extremely unpopular with the people and after the death of Alexander III, the Russians had to face the epitome of failure; Tsar Nicholas II.

Tsar Nicholas II was undoubtedly the worst Tsar of Russia since Ivan the Terrible. Among his failures, the ones that were the most important were losing the First World War and also, to add fuel to the fire, the Russo-Nipponese War or basically the war between Russia and Japan. The public sentiment for the Tsars decreased so much that in February 1917, during the outbreak of the Bolshevik Revolution, the Russian Parliament aka the Grand Duma requested the Tsar to abdicate, thus ending more than three centuries of Tsarist rule and the end of the Romanov dynasty.

This period was followed by the rule of the Bolsheviks and later, the formation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics aka the U.S.S.R. 

The Tsars were great, but their reign deteriorated over time due to the lack of progress in Russian society, causing the Tsars to be too futuristic for their own good, and resulting in their absolute downfall. The President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, is called as a modern-day Tsar due to his massive popularity with the Russian people and his long term control of the Russian Republic.

Yah, I lied, two main sources: www.hermitagemuseum.org

www.kreml.ru

as the Russian Hermitage website was minor.

Schizophrenia: The Effects on the Brain

Look down, and tell me what you see. There is no surprise now, what you see is titular redundancy. Should I repeat labels? I took a break from writing so nothing new for two weeks, but here. Enjoy.

How Does Schizophrenia Affect the Mind and the Body?

i.e. the effect of schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a medical condition common in the United States, with over 200,000 reported cases from one census (gstatic) to 3.5 million in the US (about 1.1% according to National Institute of Mental Health) and 24 million globally (World Health Organization). 7 or 8 people in every thousand will have schizophrenia (“Schizophrenia” 2), and though less common than the other mental disorders, is more serious.

Most people believe that schizophrenia is involving split personality, but in reality, the majority of afflicted people don't pose a danger to anyone; and neither is schizophrenia caused by childhood experiences or lack of willpower. Schizophrenia isn't just a single disorder, but a condition encompassing a wide range of disabilities. It can hinder cognitive, emotional and behavioral development. The symptoms are rarely the same, but normally, delusions, hallucinations and “food salad” or disorganized speech show a case of schizophrenia.

Some more symptoms include the constant feeling of being watched, a strange method of body positioning, peculiar ways of talking and writing, irrational responses, or extreme obsession with religion or the occult.

Despite all these known symptoms, the true cause of schizophrenia is still unknown. Theories include abnormalities, heredity, infections or immune disorders.

In regard to abnormalities, people with schizophrenia have an imbalance of the brain chemicals dopamine, glutamate, and serotonin (Mental Health America). Those chemicals are neurotransmitters, responsible in the transmission of messages between brain cells. The imbalance affects the reaction to stimuli. This imbalance explains the reasons a schizophrenic is overwhelmed by sensory information (loud music or bright lights).

According to Cleveland Clinic Med Ed, neural transmission has long been an object of investigation in schizophrenia. In the search for a pharmacological control drug, the first agents to be recognized were those with dopamine blocking properties. Several systems have been implicated with the cause, but the main focus is on dopamine and those brain features high in its content. For this, five dopamine receptor subtypes have been defined: D1 through D5. The blockade of receptor D2 has been shown to have the greatest effect to increasing the efficacy.

Studies of family trees have shown that schizophrenia tends to be passed down in families, and the person with the genes has a chance of schizophrenia when hormonal changes i.e. puberty occurs, or after highly stressful situations. In regards to genetic linking, Menu Matthews states that accumulating evidence shows that “genetic and neurodevelopmental factors” are associated with susceptibility to schizophrenia. Studies have shown that up to 50% of identical twins share a diagnosis of schizophrenia compared with around 12% of nonidentical twins sharing a diagnosis. Studies also show that approximately 10% of a patient's first-degree relatives are also schizophrenic, and there is a 50% chance that a child of two schizophrenic parents will be diagnosed.

Schizophrenia may be triggered by environmental events. It has been shown that babies whose mothers are infected by the flu while in pregnancy have a higher chance of developing schizophrenia later on. Anyone hospitalized for severe infections are at a higher risk.

There a few different methods to diagnosing schizophrenia: you can have a physical exam, tests and screenings, psychiatric evaluation, and diagnostic criteria for schizophrenia.

Physical exams can be used to rule out other possible issues and check possible issues that could be causing symptoms of schizophrenia.

Tests and screenings can include tests that rule out similar symptoms for other conditions, along with screening for alcohol and drugs. Doctors can request imaging studies such as MRIs or a CT scan.

Psychiatric evaluation would occur when a doctor or mental health professional checks mental status. It is done by observing behavior and checking for signs of hallucinations, suicidal thoughts, delusions, and substance use.

Doctors and mental professionals may also use criteria in ‘Diagnostic and Statistic Manual of Mental Disorders’ issued by the American Psychiatric Association to evaluate for a disease. One entire section of this work details on schizophrenia and other collective mental disorders. Interestingly, it is rare that any person will be diagnosed with schizophrenia after the age of 45. The typical onset age is the mid-20s for men and late 20s for women, with a prodromal phase that can be for months or years before the first psychotic episode.

This disease has many effects. Each person has a unique symptom sequence, and they vary from person to person in magnitude as well. Symptoms follow a type of moon cycle: they wax and wane and are marked by recurring acute psychotic episodes.

The symptoms together, or rather the disease collection itself, causes a lack in awareness, meaning most affected won't send for help. This is due to them not knowing that what happens to them is from a mental disease. In this case, family members must send for medical assistance.

Possible symptoms include delusions, hallucinations, negative symptoms, and as mentioned before, premonitions or obsessions with the occult.

Delusions are false and unfounded beliefs about the real world. These include irrational beliefs that you are being harmed, comments being directed towards you, having an exceptional ability, or having premonitions of a major catastrophe about to happen. This is something that happens to most afflicted people.

Hallucinations are generally seeing or hearing non existent things, but for those with schizophrenia, they “have the full force and impact of a normal experience” (Mayo Clinic).

Thus, as compared to a normal non schizophrenic, people with schizophrenia will have larger effects from the same cause.

Schizophrenics can also have disorganized speech, leading to the inference of disorganized thought. Communication can be impaired, and answers may be complete or even unrelated to the question asked. Disorganized behavior may also occur, including abnormal motor behavior, from “childlike stillness to unpredictable agitation” (Mayo Clinic).

All symptoms are classified as either positive or negative, with positive being those that don’t normally occur in healthy people, and negative symptoms refers to lack of ability or function to do so. As described by the NIMH, “Negative symptoms are associated with disruptions to normal emotions and behaviors”. Examples of positive symptoms include hallucinations or delusions, and negative symptoms include reduced dopamine signals or reduced speaking. Another classification of symptoms is cognitive. This is defined as those directly affecting the brain. These include poor functioning and trouble focusing or paying attention (“Schizophrenia” NIMH).

The real question for this topic is how the disease affects the brain. In a study spanning fifteen years, Nancy Andreasen analysed data of periodical brain scans from 200 subjects with schizophrenia. This was published in the American Journal of Psychiatry.

The study itself is considered the largest longitudinal brain-scan data set ever compiled, and has led to surprising results. The scans showed that people at their first episode had less brain tissue than healthy individuals. They show that people with schizophrenia are affected by something else inside the body before outward symptoms show. Andreasen states that “many studies, [mine] included, show that people with schizophrenia have significantly smaller cranium sizes.”

Cranial development is important early on, and people with schizophrenia may be affected with issues due to pregnancy complications or exposure to viruses.

“We used to have hundreds of thousands of people chronically hospitalized. Now, most are living in the community, and this is thanks to the medications we have. But antipsychotic treatment has a negative impact on the brain, so … we must get the word out that they should be used with great care, because even though they have fewer side effects than some of the other medications we use, they are certainly not trouble free and can have lifelong consequences for the health and happiness of the people and families we serve,” Andreasen notes.

She goes on further to say, “This was a very upsetting finding. We spent a couple of years analyzing the data… hoping we had made a mistake. But… it was a solid finding that wasn’t going to go away, so we decided to go ahead and publish it. The impact is painful because psychiatrists, patients, and family members don’t know how to interpret this finding. 'Should we stop using antipsychotic medication? Should we be using less?'”

Sources

www.mayoclinic.org

http://www.mentalhealthamerica.net/conditions/schizophrenia

https://now.uiowa.edu/2013/09/how-schizophrenia-affects-brain

http://www.clevelandclinicmeded.com/medicalpubs/diseasemanagement/psychiatry-psychology/schizophrenia-acute-psychosis/

http://www.who.int/mental_health/management/schizophrenia/en/

https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/schizophrenia/index.shtml

https://infocenter.nimh.nih.gov/pubstatic/NIH%2015-3517/NIH%2015-3517.pdf