Chapter 13 - Schizophrenia and Other Psychotic DIsorders

Question 1

When experiencing hallucinations, where do people with schizophrenia show elevated brain activity? What
does this suggest about the nature of hallucinations?

Answer 1

For people with schizophrenia, they have a reduction in the brain volume in the auditory and speech perception areas. There’s actually an ELEVATED increase in Broca’s area (in the fontal lobe) which is involved in speech production.

• This suggests that hallucinations are just patients misinterpreting their own self-talk as coming from an external source.

Question 2

How do schizoaffective disorder, schizophreniform disorder and brief psychotic disorder differ from
schizophrenia (in terms of diagnostic criteria)?

Answer 2

• Schizoaffective Disorder: has schizophrenia symptoms as well as mood disorder symptoms (bipolar or depression)
• Schizophreniform Disorder: has schizophrenia symptoms BUT its just for a short period of time! (at least one month BUT less than six!)
• Brief Psychotic Disorder: just like it sounds, sudden onset of psychotic symptoms (only lasts a few days!), too short to be schizophreniform which needs to last for at least a month

Question 3

Explain the research findings on with respect to the offspring of non-diagnosed discordant MZ twins. (This
section is right above Figure 13.3.)

Answer 3

• Since MZ twins have identical genes, the children of the twin that didn’t have schizophrenia WILL have an elevated risk of schizophrenia even if their parent did not suffer from it.

Question 4

What is the evidence for the “virus” theory of schizophrenia? Explain how the difference between
monochorionic and dichorionic twins is relevant to this theory (text around Figure 13.5).

Answer 4

• Ppl born b/w January and March are more likely to have schizophrenia.
• After an influenza outbreak, there were elevated rates of schizophrenia.
• Monochorionic twins have much higher concordance rates bc they share a placenta, thus, if their mother was to contact the flu, the infection will most likely go to both of them, not just one of them!

Question 5

When researchers reviewed home videos of individuals who later developed schizophrenia, what factors
seemed to predict the disorder?

Answer 5

• Old home movies revealed that children who went on to develop schizophrenia showed more unusual hand movements than their healthy siblings!
• less positive and more negative facial expression

Question 6

Describe the research findings with respect to P50 suppression.

Answer 6

P50: response to two clicks that are 50 milliseconds after each other

• Many ppl with schizo have poor P50 suppression, the hear the second click just as loudly as the first, they don’t habituate to it (like normal ppl do)!

Question 7

What do findings of enlarged brain ventricles among those with schizophrenia indicate?

Answer 7

Ppl with schizo tend to have enlarged brain ventricles which mean they have less brain volume!!!