Schizophrenia is not a common disorder, especially since it is only seen in about 1% of the world's population which accounts for about 3.5 million people. This disorder, otherwise, can be very extreme. People with schizophrenia have a decreased activity in the prefrontal cortex which is located in the frontal lobe, and an increased activity in the basal ganglia. Increasing the activity in the basal ganglia increases the amount of neurotransmitters of dopamine are released. The boost of dopamine activity causes hallucinations and delusions, some of the few symptoms associated with schizophrenia. It is also one of the many hypothesis of how schizophrenia is caused. Another theory of what causes schizophrenia involves the NMDA receptors that
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What has been proven are the types of symptoms associated with schizophrenia. These symptoms are broken down into three categories. There are positive symptoms, negative symptoms, and cognitive symptoms. Positive symptoms are hallucinations, delusions, dysfunctional ways of thinking, disorganized speech, and disorders of movement such as catatonia. All of these indicate a state of psychosis. Due to the decrease of activity in the prefrontal cortex, this impairs schizophrenics' planning of behavior, attention, and judgement as well as sense of smell which can explain why most of these symptoms occur. Negative symptoms are usually found in healthy people rather than patients themselves meaning to say that these can also be categorized as normal behaviors and emotions. These symptoms include diminished emotional expression and self-directed purposeful activities, reduced speaking, and reduced feelings in pleasure. Lastly, the cognitive symptoms can be shown very subtly in schizophrenics. For most it is subtle, but for others it can appear to be very severe. Cognitive symptoms encompass the poor ability to understand information and use that information to make an executive decision, troubles with paying attention, and the ability to take the information taught to them and use that information immediately after learning
What has been proven are the types of symptoms associated with schizophrenia. These symptoms are broken down into three categories. There are positive symptoms, negative symptoms, and cognitive symptoms. Positive symptoms are hallucinations, delusions, dysfunctional ways of thinking, disorganized speech, and disorders of movement such as catatonia. All of these indicate a state of psychosis. Due to the decrease of activity in the prefrontal cortex, this impairs schizophrenics' planning of behavior, attention, and judgement as well as sense of smell which can explain why most of these symptoms occur. Negative symptoms are usually found in healthy people rather than patients themselves meaning to say that these can also be categorized as normal behaviors and emotions. These symptoms include diminished emotional expression and self-directed purposeful activities, reduced speaking, and reduced feelings in pleasure. Lastly, the cognitive symptoms can be shown very subtly in schizophrenics. For most it is subtle, but for others it can appear to be very severe. Cognitive symptoms encompass the poor ability to understand information and use that information to make an executive decision, troubles with paying attention, and the ability to take the information taught to them and use that information immediately after learning