SCHIZOPHRENIA: FOUND ABNORMAL
SYNCHRONIZATION
Schizophrenia may be considered as a group of psychiatric disorders characterized by a common set of symptoms. Although it has not been proved that there is a common ground in pathogenesis, all clinical forms are usually considered as a united entity. In this view, schizophrenia has been studied as a pathology of specific brain areas or neurotransmitter systems. In BM&L’s opinion the complex reality may be nearer to a range of defects in the functional integrity of neural circuits rather than a single molecular or anatomical lesion.
Spencer and his colleagues (Neural synchrony indexes disordered perception and cognition in schizophrenia. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, in press, to be published in 2005) show that synchronization of neural circuits is abnormal in patients with schizophrenia and that this abnormality correlates with the core symptoms of the disease.