Brain Technologies Of Brain And Schizophrenia

1356 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Negative impact of psychology

The brain, a component of the nervous system that is located in our skulls is a complex organ that determines almost everything about us, from actions to personality traits. It controls voluntary movement, conscious thinking, language, memory, and emotion (“Brain” 2014). Through the use of brain imaging technologies, psychologists are able to break down the complexity of the active brain and study its particular processes. Such technologies include Positron Emission Topography (PET), Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), Electroencephalogram (EEG), and Computerized Axial Tomography (CAT). These instruments are useful in the field of neurology, but have their own set of benefits and drawbacks depending on different situations. Hence, this essay will discuss and evaluate the brain technologies of PET and fMRI in its role of investigating the relationship between biological factors and behavior in terms of schizophrenia.
Schizophrenia is a chronic disorder where a defect of the brain affects a person’s actions, thoughts, and perspective of the world around them. Those diagnosed with schizophrenia are not able to discern between reality and fantasy. Symptoms of this mental illness are hallucinations, delusions, fumble of speech/behavior, decrease in emotional expression, and decrease in motivation (Queensland Government 2011). Such an illness occurs mostly in later teens and early twenties with a likelihood of being more severe in men. They are caused by environmental factors, prenatal infection, an abuse of drugs, etc. As stated in Magnetic Resonance Imaging Of Brain In People At High Risk Of Developing Schizophrenia, brain imaging technologies have brought light to the multifactorial disord...

... middle of paper ...

...elation between biological factors and behavior. However, the two main brain imaging technologies used when dealing with the neural defect of schizophrenia, are MRI and PET scans. These instruments are quite useful in the fact that they help identify potential cases of a person being diagnosed with a mental illness like schizophrenia and the causes of such a condition. Both have a good number of both advantages and disadvantages. Depending on the situation, the drawbacks of the technology may be higher than the benefits or vice versa. Hence, not one particular brain imaging technology is superior over the other. As a matter of fact, all the instruments combined could create the ideal brain imaging technology that can be applied to the general public in all circumstances when investigating the link between behavior and biological factors in terms of schizophrenia.

Show More
Related

  • Sample Schizophrenia Case Study

    793 Words  | 2 Pages

    Note: Client is a 40 year old, disabled, single, Mexican-American Male. Client is currently homeless throughout Ventura County. Client is enrolled with Ventura County Behavioral Health 8390 South Oxnard Adults Clinic with a diagnosis of F25.9 Schizoaffective Disorder, Unspecified. Client was previously a long term client of Ventura County Behavioral Health EPICS program with a diagnosis of 295.30 Schizophrenia, Paranoid Type.

    Read More

  • Biography of James Swann Jr.

    960 Words  | 2 Pages

    Tsuang, M. T., Faraone, S. V., & Glatt, S. J. (2011). Schizophrenia. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Read More

  • Clozapine and the Treatment of Schizophrenia

    1246 Words  | 3 Pages

    Schizophrenia: From Mind to Molecule. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Press. Kalat, J. (2004). Biological Psychology.

    Read More

  • Argumentative Essay On Schizophrenia

    1251 Words  | 3 Pages

    Mental illnesses are diseases that plague a being’s mind and corrupts one’s thoughts and feelings. Schizophrenia is one of the many disastrous illnesses that consume one’s life, is known as a real disease that deserves much attention. Experts believe that what causes the illness is a defect in the gene’s of the brain, and little signs of schizophrenia are shown until about one’s early adult years. Some effects of schizophrenia can either be negative or positive, but even if the effects could be either one, people should still be aware that there is something puzzling and alarming happening in the mind of a schizophrenic patient.

    Read More

  • Schizophrenia Case Study: Janet's Mental Condition

    837 Words  | 2 Pages

    According to (Barlow, 2001), Schizophrenia is a psychological or mental disorder that makes the patient recognize real things and to have abnormal social behavior. Schizophrenia is characterized by symptoms such as confused thinking, hallucinations, false beliefs, demotivation, reduced social interaction and emotional expressions (Linkov, 2008). Diagnosis of this disorder is done through observation of patient’s behavior, and previously reported experiences (Mothersill, 2007). In this paper, therefore, my primary goal is to discuss Schizophrenia and how this condition is diagnosed and treated.

    Read More

  • Causes of the Schizophrenic Mind

    663 Words  | 2 Pages

    Individuals with schizophrenia are required to have MRIs or CT scans due to the theory that schizophrenia may stem from a physical abnormality in the brain. MRIs and CT scans of schizophrenic patients have seen enlarged ventricles which results in the loss of brain cells. Once brains cell exit the brain, it leaves the individual more vulnerable to hallucination, delusions and decreases their body control abilities. These scans have also seen structural abnormalities in the prefrontal temporal cortex and the temporal-limbic area of the brain. The prefrontal temporal cortex is critical in judgment, insight, motivation, and mood. The temporal-limbic area is located at the bottom of the brain and it involved in the retention of visual memories, processing sensory details, comprehending language, storing new memories, emotion, and finding meanings. It is obvious that abnormalities in these areas of the brain can and will cause schizophrenia symptoms. These abnormalities are most commonly produced by genetic pairings. (Begeley 1.)

    Read More

  • Dopamine Hypothesis Of Schizophrenia

    979 Words  | 2 Pages

    Schizophrenia has been defined as a mental disorder characterized by a breakdown in mental thinking and a poor emotional response. This disorganization hasn’t till now acquired a clear understanding of the mechanisms that lie behind (Harrison 1999) but researchers suggest an increase in the dopaminergic transmission in the prefrontal cortex coupled to an inhibition of the glutamatergic pathways, majorly at the level of NMDA receptors (Wen-Jun Gao). For more than 50 years, the dopamine hypothesis had been considered the mother of the theories of schizophrenia. Van Rossum first proposed it in 1966 suggesting that a hyperactivity occurring at the level of the mesolimbic dopamine pathway is the mediator of positive symptoms of schizophrenia (Seeman 1987). More research has flaunted a hypoactivity in the mesocortical dopamine pathway, which has been hypothesized to mediate the negative, cognitive, and affective symptoms of schizophrenia (Knable & Weinberg 1997; Tzschentke 2001). However, in the past two decades, hypotheses of schizophrenia focused less on the already established facts of the hyperactivity of mesolimbic dopamine neurons and under-activity of the mesocortical dopamine neurons. A major hypothesis of schizophrenia digging, to a certain extent, far from dopamine proposes that a combination of genetic factors converge on the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor of the excitatory neurotransmitter glutamate, leading to neurodevelopmental abnormalities in glutamate synapse formation and ultimately resulting in the observed hypofunction at the level of NMDA receptors. Knowing that NMDA receptors regulate dopaminergic neurons, the decreased activity of NMDA receptors may be involved in the abnormal dopamine activity associated ...

    Read More

  • The Dopamine Hypothesis of Schizophrenia

    1373 Words  | 3 Pages

    Schizophrenia is a disease that has plagued societies around the world for centuries, although it was not given its formal name until 1911. It is characterized by the presence of positive and negative symptoms. Positive symptoms are so named because of the presence of altered behaviors, such as delusions, hallucinations (usually auditory), extreme emotions, excited motor activity, and incoherent thoughts and speech. (1,2) In contrast, negative symptoms are described as a lack of behaviors, such as emotion, speech, social interaction, and action. (1,2) These symptoms are by no means concrete. Not all schizophrenic patients will exhibit all or even a majority of these symptoms, and there is some disagreement in the psychiatric community as to the exact diagnostic criteria. In addition, there is a great deal of debate as to the causes of the disease. While some proposed causes have been proven false, such as bad parenting and poor will power (2), there are many theories that remain. One of the most famous and most debatable is the dopamine hypothesis. The proposed hypothesis states that the brain of schizophrenic patients produces more dopamine than normal brains. It is this increased dopamine that is believed to be responsible for the symptoms of the disease. However, the is much debate in the scientific community as to the exact mechanism by which altered dopamine levels, especially in the prefrontal cortex, striatum, and limbic system, produce schizophrenia. There is much clinical evidense that provides support for the dopamine hypothesis. The first evidense that dopamine may be involved in schizophrenia came from amphetamine users. Amphetamines work by causing the brain to produce mo...

    Read More

  • Psychological Disorders That Affect The Brain: Schizophrenia

    930 Words  | 2 Pages

    Schizophrenia is a chronic psychotic disorder that is characterized by different disturbing behaviors that individuals suffer from. The characterized different disturbing behaviors associated with the disorder are emotional, thought, and perceptions on certain aspects of life. Individuals that suffer from schizophrenia seem too disengaged from society and are not able to perform some of the normal functions of life. The disorder is associated with “deficits in neurocognitive processes that represent a core feature of the disorder and may precede illness onset” (Kantrowitz, 2012) as stated in the Expect Review of Neurotherapeutics article. There are defects in many neuropsychological domains throughout the person’s brain that ends up causes the person to have certain reactions. People that suffer from schizophrenia also have episodes of hallucinations, delusions, incoherent speech, illogical thinking, and bizarre behaviors. In addition, some other behaviors are not being able to think clearly and have almost no facial expression to almost any emotio...

    Read More

  • Shakespeare's Hamlet and His Hallucinations

    1489 Words  | 3 Pages

    National Library of Medicine, National Institute of Health. Schizophrenia. 31 Jan 2013. Web. 15 May 2014

    Read More

  • Essay On Neuroscience

    1020 Words  | 3 Pages

    In both clinical care and research, the use of brain imaging, also known as “neuroimaging”, is becoming an increasingly important technique. New technologies such as Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging, or FMRI, allow researchers to study the brain at a level which was never thought possible. This noninvasive procedure allows researchers to visualize brain structure and function, at both the molecular and whole brain level (A.) Scientists are now able to better understand neural networks and a variety of other cognitive processes. For the first time in human history, extremely complex wonders of the brain are being uncovered. Psychiatric diseases, human emotion, personality traits, and many other phenomena that were once mysteries are now being deeply analyzed and understood. Each day new doors are being opened...

    Read More

  • Nt1310 Unit 2 Reaction Paper

    499 Words  | 1 Pages

    Research using fMRI is based on seeing which part of the brain is activated in certain conditions. Findings from this research showed strong evidence of associations between mental disorders and the brain by comparing regions that function and look differently between

    Read More

  • Schizophrenia And Teenage Development

    385 Words  | 1 Pages

    Schizophrenia is an enemy of the brain that interrupts and takes over the development of the frontal cortex that controls the different functions of the brain. It is responsible for the disruption of how we think, reason, memorize and deal with certain emotions. According, to the video it is a crucial time where we are trying to discover our identities, as well as how we fit in society. It was also mentioned how schizophrenia is as complex as the brain itself. It is difficult to discover how it forms or why it is most vulnerable to the teenage development, nonetheless, many theories emerge. Using MRI, they were able to observe how the ventricles were bigger in patients with schizophrenia as oppose to normal patients. Oversized ventricles

    Read More

  • Brain Computer Interface Technology

    2268 Words  | 5 Pages

    Brain Computer Interface (BCI) is method to convert brain activities signal to understandable action for machine or robot or any actuator, one of the commonly method to get brain activities is electroencephalography (EEG) system which is easier and low cost and also non-invasive method compare to other brain computer interface systems [1], [2]. In Recent researches of non-invasive brain computer interface based on EEG to control actuators result of create some equipment that controlled with brain, for example electrical wheelchairs [3], mobile Robots [4], humanoid robots [5].

    Read More

  • Shattered Perception: The Narrator of “The Sandman” as a Schizophrenic

    1805 Words  | 4 Pages

    According to the Johns Hopkins Medicine Website , schizophrenia is “a mental illness that usually strikes in late adolescence or early adulthood, but can strike at any time in life” that is characterized by “delusions, hallucinations, bizarre behavior, [and] disorganized speech” among other symptoms. Schizophrenia is, at its core, the altering of a person’s perception of reality by some somatic means and when observed by a psychologically sound individual, can be quite unsettling. After all, seeing a person whose reality is fractured causes us to doubt our own reality, if only in a fleeting thought.

    Read More

More about Brain Technologies Of Brain And Schizophrenia

Open Document