Cognitive Explanations Of Schizophrenia

Question 1

What does Helmsley (1993) suggest about cognitive and biological processes in schizophrenia?

Answer 1

Helmsley believes that abnormalities in the hippocampus of schizophrenics cause a disconnection between stored schemata and current sensory input.

We usually decide automatically which aspects of a particular scenario need attention by unconscious reference to the relevant schemata

Helmsley suggests schizophrenics fail to activate the schemata and so suffer from sensory overload and misinterpretation of simple events.
- this explains hallucinations, delusions and paranoia

additionally internal thoughts may not be recognised as coming from memory and are experienced as external stimuli

Question 2

What supporting evidence is there for the theories?

Answer 2

There is evidence showing that people with schizophrenia often perform poorly on information processing tasks that require selective attention
- this supports Frith (1992)

Frith has recorded changes in cerebral blood flow between the pre-frontal cortex and hippocampus when studying schizophrenics performing specific tasks
- supports the idea of irregularity in particular pathways

Helmsley conducted research on animals and found a neurological relationship between problems in the hippocampus and schemata activation failure
- supports Helmsley but the work has little clear cut evidence as animal research only provides evidence usually in terms of underlying biological structures.

Question 3

What are the criticisms of these theories?

Answer 3

Many brain damaged patients suffer from cognitive deficits but do not suffer from schizophrenia

These theorists cannot explain why some people have deficits and why others do not, and what causes them

Doesn’t establish cause and effect: not clear whether cognitive deficits cause schizophrenia or are a result o the condition

Can be argued as deterministic because it suggests that these deficits are the reason for schizophrenia

Evidence is all provided by the theorists themselves, sense of subjectivity

Can be accused of being reductionist as it ignores the environmental factors that can cause schizophrenia

Question 4

What does Frith (1992) suggest about cognitive and biological processes in schizophrenia?

Answer 4

Neuropsychologist Frith, suggests that a cognitive mechanism in which he calls the “meta-representation” is broken down.

This cognitive mechanism allows us to be aware of our intentions and to understand the intentions of others, it depends on the ability of the brain to sort incoming stimuli into that which needs preconscious and conscious processing.

As its broken down, information that should be dealt with by the preconscious passes into conscious awareness.
This leads the sufferer to misinterpret sounds and actions and fail to distinguish between internal and external stimuli
- this explains paranoia and hallucinations

Frith argues that this happens because of an irregularity in the neural pathways running between the pre-frontal cortex and the hippocampus