Biological explanation for schizophrenia: Neural

Question 1

What are neural correlates ?

Answer 1

Patterns of structure or activity in the brain that occur at the the same time as an experience so may be involved with why it is happenning.

Question 2

What is the most known neural correlate of schizophrenia ?

Answer 2

The neurotransmitter dopamine (DA)

Question 3

What is the original dopamine hypothesis ?

Answer 3

• an excessive amount of dopamine in the subcortex
• also known as hyperdopaminergia
• E.g. Excessive amounts of DA in the Broca’s area which is responsible for speech
• This could explain the symptoms of SZ such as auditory hallucination and speech poverty

Question 4

What is the updates version of the dopamine hypothesis ?

Answer 4

• Davis
• Too little dopamine in the cortex region
• Known as hypodopamingeria
• This is when there is too little dopamine in the pre-frontal cortex
• Pre-frontal cortex is responsible for functions such as logical
• This could explain symptoms of SZ such as avolition

Question 5

What are the strengths of the neural explanation ?

Answer 5

Biologically reductionist
- broken down into one unit causations
- creates objective research

Biologically reductionist
- develops treatments to tackle the imbalance of DA
- this can be applied to drug therapy

Question 6

What are the limitations of the neural explanation ?

Answer 6

Problems determining cause and effect
- abnormal DA may cause schizophrenia or just might be an effect
- The studies into neural correlates only looks at correlation not causation

Treatment fallacy
- effective drugs don’t mean that DA is the cause
- may just be helping symptoms but not treating the root cause of the SZ