"Schizophrenia could be 'evolution of the intellect'"
Submitted by Robert Daeley on Fri, 2007-02-23 13:53.
A new genetics study has found that schizophrenia and other mental disorders might be a result of humanity’s evolution, a “price some people pay” for the mental advancements we’ve achieved.
This common version of the gene appears to make the brain’s most sophisticated thinking region more efficient, the researchers found.
It improves the way information is exchanged between the striatum, a brain region that processes reward, and the prefrontal cortex, the brain’s executive hub that manages thoughts and actions.
When this circuit works efficiently, the normal outcome is more flexible thinking and better memory.
But the circuit has been linked to brain functions that go wrong in patients with schizophrenia.