Sunday, 12 May 2019

Biological explanations of Schizophrenia

Specification details:
Biological explanations for
schizophrenia: genetics, the
dopamine hypothesis and neural
correlates.
Starter:
1. Draw the process of synaptic transmission in your books.
Label the:
• Pre and post synaptic neuron
• Vesicles
• Neurotransmitter
• Receptor
• Reuptake sites
2. Explain the following terms:
• Concordance rate
• Polygenic

To know that schizophrenia may have a biological origin linked to faulty genes coding for neural transmission and
neuroanatomy
To understand the issues involved with finding genetic causes of mental illness’ such as schizophrenia
 Sunday, 12 May 2019

Biological explanations of Schizophrenia

Concordance rate: the measure of similarity

between two individuals on a given trait.
Polygenic: A condition is caused by multiple genes
interacting with one another and the
environment.

To know that schizophrenia may have a biological origin linked to faulty genes coding for neural transmission and
neuroanatomy
To understand the issues involved with finding genetic causes of mental illness’ such as schizophrenia
 Biological explanations for schizophrenia
• The biological explanation for schizophrenia is
the dominant one and has received the
greatest empirical support
• This approach sees mental disorders as having
physical causes
• A number of biological explanations for
schizophrenia have emerged:
 Genetic vulnerability
 The role of the neurotransmitter dopamine
 Neural correlates
To know that schizophrenia may have a biological origin linked to faulty genes coding for neural transmission and
neuroanatomy
To understand the issues involved with finding genetic causes of mental illness’ such as schizophrenia
 Genetic vulnerability
• Schizophrenia has been explained in a number of
ways but the biological approach offers particularly
useful suggestions as to how it is caused.
• It has been proposed that there is a genetic
component to schizophrenia which predisposes
some individuals to the illness.
• The genetic explanation suggests that whether a
person develops schizophrenia is at least partly due
to their genes. This may explain why patients often
have other family members with schizophrenia.
To know that schizophrenia may have a biological origin linked to faulty genes coding for neural transmission and
neuroanatomy
To understand the issues involved with finding genetic causes of mental illness’ such as schizophrenia
 Over to you
• Using the sheet and pages 204-205 answer
the following questions on genetic
vulnerability of schizophrenia

To know that schizophrenia may have a biological origin linked to faulty genes coding for neural transmission and
neuroanatomy
To understand the issues involved with finding genetic causes of mental illness’ such as schizophrenia
 Genetics – Family Studies
• Family studies find individuals who have schizophrenia and
determine whether their biological relatives are similarly affected
more often than non-biological relatives.
1. One very large-scale family study was carried out by Gottesman
(1991)
Concordance rates
• 48% monozygotic
• 17% dizygotic
• 6% parents
• 1% general population
• Findings have shown that the greater the degree of genetic
relatedness, the greater the risk of developing schizophrenia.
To know that schizophrenia may have a biological origin linked to faulty genes coding for neural transmission and
neuroanatomy
To understand the issues involved with finding genetic causes of mental illness’ such as schizophrenia
 Polygenic and aetiologically heterogenous

2. Polygenic: because a number of genes seem to work in

combination to contribute to the development of schizophrenia
3. It is aetiologically heterogenous as it appears that different
combinations of these genes contribute to the development the
subtypes of the disorder
4. Ripke (2014) found that 108 separate gene variations are
associated with an increased risk of schizophrenia, especially
those that coded for the functioning of specific neurotransmitters
such as dopamine AND glutamate*.- this also means there is
little predictive value from this explanation. It is hard to
determine who will/wont develop the condition.
• A strength of this study however was the large sample size of
37,000 schizophrenics

To know that schizophrenia may have a biological origin linked to faulty genes coding for neural transmission and
neuroanatomy
To understand the issues involved with finding genetic causes of mental illness’ such as schizophrenia
 Adoption studies
5. Suggests that adoptees with a biological parent with
schizophrenia are at greater risk of developing the condition.
• A strength of this study is it separates genes and
environment, so it can be suggested that schizophrenia was
not caused by children being influenced by a schizophrenic
parent (SLT)
• It however also suggests that the environment also played a
role. Those at risk were more likely to develop the
condition if there were unhealthy rearing patterns in the
adoptive family- What is this called?
• Diathesis stress

To know that schizophrenia may have a biological origin linked to faulty genes coding for neural transmission and
neuroanatomy
To understand the issues involved with finding genetic causes of mental illness’ such as schizophrenia
 Mutation
6. Schizophrenia could develop in the absence of a family
member having the condition if there are mutations in some of
the candidate genes.
• This has been linked to mutation in the sperm of older
fathers. According to Brown (2002) fathers under 25yrs
have a 0.7% chance of risk of mutation leading to
schizophrenia compared to 2% for fathers over 50yrs.
• But association- cannot demonstrate causal relationship

To know that schizophrenia may have a biological origin linked to faulty genes coding for neural transmission and
neuroanatomy
To understand the issues involved with finding genetic causes of mental illness’ such as schizophrenia
 Determinism
7. Suggests that schizophrenia is caused by internal biological
factors and that patients have little free will- this does appear
to hold true at face value as schizophrenics genuinely have a
break with reality and struggle to be able to be lucid enough
to control their behaviour. But a negative consequence of this
determinist view is that the assumption is that if the disorder is
inherited, its unavoidable. This may be a very fatalistic view for
those with first degree relatives of the condition.

To know that schizophrenia may have a biological origin linked to faulty genes coding for neural transmission and
neuroanatomy
To understand the issues involved with finding genetic causes of mental illness’ such as schizophrenia
 Reductionism
8. Simplistic to suggest that genetic explanations are the
singular factor contributing to the disorder. Ignores
contribution of socio-cultural, cognitive and familial
dysfunction (e.g. schizophrenogenic mother: cold rejecting
and controlling- psychodynamic explanation- we will look at
later)

To know that schizophrenia may have a biological origin linked to faulty genes coding for neural transmission and
neuroanatomy
To understand the issues involved with finding genetic causes of mental illness’ such as schizophrenia
 Limitation of Twin Studies
9. Twin studies seem to indicate that there is a strong
genetic component to the disorder
• Twin studies demonstrate that there may be a
predisposition to develop schizophrenia, however, the
fact that both twins do not always develop schizophrenia
means that environmental factors must also play a part
• The fact that the concordance rate for twins is not 100%
means that schizophrenia cannot be accounted for by
genetics alone
• The higher concordance between MZ twins could be
explained by greater environmental similarity rather
than genetic similarity – MZ twins elicit more similar
treatment than DZ twins (so can be explained by
other theories)
 Plenary: Look at Genes’ genes on
page 204
• 1. What is the probability of Gene and Kary’s child
developing schizophrenia
• 2. What might the genetic counsellor tell them about
their understanding of ‘the gene’ for schizophrenia?

HOMEWORK: Pre-reading on The dopamine hypothesis

and neural correlates of schizophrenia, including
evaluation.

To know that schizophrenia may have a biological origin linked to faulty genes coding for neural transmission and
neuroanatomy
To understand the issues involved with finding genetic causes of mental illness’ such as schizophrenia
 Lesson 2:
The Dopamine Hypothesis
Starter: Give two positive and two negative symptoms
of schizophrenia.

ANSWER
+ve: Hallucinations, delusions

-ve: Avolition, speech poverty

To know the difference between a Hyperdopaminergia and Hypodopaminergia and agonist and antagonist drugs
To understand limitations to neural correlate studies on helping us understand the condition
To be able to link work completed in the issues and debates topic to this section
 Lesson 2:
The Dopamine Hypothesis
• An imbalance of the neurotransmitter dopamine has
been implicated in the symptoms of schizophrenia.
• Originally thought it was too much dopamine that
led to schizophrenia, but that has been found to be
dependent on the part of the brain involved and
symptoms exhibited.
• What is the difference between the terms:
HYPO
HYPER

To know the difference between a Hyperdopaminergia and Hypodopaminergia and agonist and antagonist drugs
To understand limitations to neural correlate studies on helping us understand the condition
To be able to link work completed in the issues and debates topic to this section
 Video
• Professor Jeffrey Lieberman discusses the dopamine
hypothesis

To know the difference between a Hyperdopaminergia and Hypodopaminergia and agonist and antagonist drugs
To understand limitations to neural correlate studies on helping us understand the condition
To be able to link work completed in the issues and debates topic to this section
 Evidence for:
The Dopamine hypothesis
Evidence for dopamine includes:
 Amphetamines; this is a dopamine agonist, this stimulates
nerve cells containing dopamine causing the synapse to be An agonist is a
chemical that
‘flooded’ – large doses of the drug can cause hallucinations binds to a
and delusions of a schizophrenic episode. receptor of a cell
and triggers a
 Cocaine also increases the levels of dopamine in the brain and response by that
cell.
can cause the positive symptoms of schizophrenia and An antagonist
exaggerate them in people who already have the disorder. blocks or
reduces the
 Antipsychotic drugs (dopamine antagonists) which block the effect of a
neurotransmitter
activity of dopamine in the brain, by reducing the stimulation
of the dopamine system, eliminates hallucinations and
delusions. By alleviating many of the symptoms of
schizophrenia, antipsychotic drugs strengthen the case for
dopamine being a significant contributory factor.
To know the difference between a Hyperdopaminergia and Hypodopaminergia and agonist and antagonist drugs
To understand limitations to neural correlate studies on helping us understand the condition
To be able to link work completed in the issues and debates topic to this section
 Evidence against:
The Dopamine Hypothesis
Other neurotransmitters such as Glutamate have also been linked to
schizophrenia- so dopamine cannot be the only one! Does not provide a
complete picture for the origins of the disorder.

To know the difference between a Hyperdopaminergia and Hypodopaminergia and agonist and antagonist drugs
To understand limitations to neural correlate studies on helping us understand the condition
To be able to link work completed in the issues and debates topic to this section
 Neural correlates of schizophrenia
• Neural correlates are measurements of the structure
or function of the brain that occur in conjunction
with an experience, in this case schizophrenia.
• There is growing evidence that schizophrenia is down
to structural abnormalities in the brain
• Brain scanning techniques have made it possible to
investigate living brain images.
• Both positive and negative symptoms have
correlates
To know the difference between a Hyperdopaminergia and Hypodopaminergia and agonist and antagonist drugs
To understand limitations to neural correlate studies on helping us understand the condition
To be able to link work completed in the issues and debates topic to this section
 Neural correlates of schizophrenia
Neural correlates of negative symptoms
• Activity in the ventral striatum has been linked to
the development of avolition (loss of motivation)
• The ventral striatum are believed to be
particularly involved in the anticipation of a
reward for certain actions
• Therefore, if there is abnormality in areas such as
the ventral striatum, then this would result in a
lack of motivation (avolition)

To know the difference between a Hyperdopaminergia and Hypodopaminergia and agonist and antagonist drugs
To understand limitations to neural correlate studies on helping us understand the condition
To be able to link work completed in the issues and debates topic to this section
 Neural correlates of schizophrenia
Neural correlates of positive symptoms
• Reduced activity in the superior temporal
gyrus and anterior cingulate gyrus have
been linked to the development of auditory
hallucinations
• Patients experiencing auditory
hallucinations showed lower activation
levels in these areas than controls
• Therefore, reduced activity in these areas
of the brain is a neural correlate of auditory
hallucinations
To know the difference between a Hyperdopaminergia and Hypodopaminergia and agonist and antagonist drugs
To understand limitations to neural correlate studies on helping us understand the condition
To be able to link work completed in the issues and debates topic to this section
To know the difference between a Hyperdopaminergia and Hypodopaminergia and agonist and antagonist drugs
To understand limitations to neural correlate studies on helping us understand the condition
To be able to link work completed in the issues and debates topic to this section
To know the difference between a Hyperdopaminergia and Hypodopaminergia and agonist and antagonist drugs
To understand limitations to neural correlate studies on helping us understand the condition
To be able to link work completed in the issues and debates topic to this section
 Neural correlates of schizophrenia - evaluation

• Findings are inconsistent and therefore inconclusive

• MRIs have made it possible to investigate living brain
images which is an advance on merely having to rely
on post mortems
• There are, however issues of causality. Cause and
effect can not be established with brain
abnormalities - it is still uncertain whether structural
abnormalities/reduced functioning predispose to
schizophrenia, or whether the onset of the clinical
symptoms causes these changes.
To know the difference between a Hyperdopaminergia and Hypodopaminergia and agonist and antagonist drugs
To understand limitations to neural correlate studies on helping us understand the condition
To be able to link work completed in the issues and debates topic to this section
 Discuss: Issues and debates
• How would you apply the following arguments to the
biological explanation of schizophrenia:

• Reductionism v holism
• Free will v determinism
• Nature v Nurture
• Diathesis stress

To know the difference between a Hyperdopaminergia and Hypodopaminergia and agonist and antagonist drugs
To understand limitations to neural correlate studies on helping us understand the condition
To be able to link work completed in the issues and debates topic to this section
 Evaluation Summary
• Biological explanations do account for schizophrenia,
however the fact that there is no conclusive explanation that
accounts for all schizophrenics - research is difficult to
interpret and there have been contradictory findings.
• It is difficult to establish cause and effect – as many
participants have suffered from schizophrenia for a while
and have been undergoing treatment.
• Biological explanations are reductionist in attempting to
explain a complex multi- faceted disorder at the level of
cells, genes and chemicals

To know the difference between a Hyperdopaminergia and Hypodopaminergia and agonist and antagonist drugs
To understand limitations to neural correlate studies on helping us understand the condition
To be able to link work completed in the issues and debates topic to this section
 Evaluation Summary
• Biological explanations are deterministic in the
assumption that the disorder can be inherited and
unavoidable
• Biological explanations do account for schizophrenia,
however the fact that there is no conclusive explanation
that accounts for all schizophrenics means that
psychological explanations need to be considered.
• A ‘diathesis-stress’ relationship may be at work – an
individual may have a genetic predisposition for
schizophrenia but it may be due to environmental factors
that lead to the onset of the condition

To know the difference between a Hyperdopaminergia and Hypodopaminergia and agonist and antagonist drugs
To understand limitations to neural correlate studies on helping us understand the condition
To be able to link work completed in the issues and debates topic to this section
 Essay Plan

Describe and evaluate biological explanations

for schizophrenia.
(16 marks)

To know the difference between a Hyperdopaminergia and Hypodopaminergia and agonist and antagonist drugs
To understand limitations to neural correlate studies on helping us understand the condition
To be able to link work completed in the issues and debates topic to this section
 Lesson 3: Essay skills

Read through the model answer with the mark

scheme and complete tasks 1-3
Annotate your plan from the previous lesson

To know the difference between a Hyperdopaminergia and Hypodopaminergia and agonist and antagonist drugs
To understand limitations to neural correlate studies on helping us understand the condition
To be able to link work completed in the issues and debates topic to this section
 Over to you:

Using your annotated plan and class notes: Not

copying the exemplar complete :

Describe and evaluate biological explanations

for schizophrenia- 16 marks

To know the difference between a Hyperdopaminergia and Hypodopaminergia and agonist and antagonist drugs
To understand limitations to neural correlate studies on helping us understand the condition
To be able to link work completed in the issues and debates topic to this section