Mental health advocates and policy makers are increasingly attuned to the importance of the recovery concept, and psychiatrists and neuroscientists increasingly emphasize the medical model and neurobiological mechanisms in relation to schizophrenia. Studies have shown that people with schizophrenia are tremendously heterogeneous in each domain of recovery, and the various domains of recovery are themselves relatively independent from one another. Studies have also shown that current interventions are effective for specific dimensions of the illness and functions, are usually ameliorative rather than curative, and are effective only for a proportion of patients. Hence, the authors suggest defining recovery in terms of improvements in specific domains rather than globally -- for example, "recovery of cognitive functioning" or "recovery of vocational functioning" -- to signify improvements in specific areas. This definition realistically emphasizes states of relative and partial recovery that patients can achieve in response to treatment. The emphasis on a range of improvements in specific areas should allow clinicians to communicate more clearly regarding the current findings and goals of treatment. The article also examines current research on various aspects of recovery, including the effects of treatment on pathophysiology, symptoms, cognitive impairments, quality of life, and self-agency. An operational definition of recovery allows for bridging hope and recovery with important advances in the science of the brain. Future clinical and neuroscience research and service development should emphasize measures of recovery as outcomes for people with schizophrenia.

https://ps.psychiatryonline.org/doi/pdf/10.1176/ps.2008.59.5.487

Science and recovery in schizophrenia.

Orbitofrontal cortex abnormality and deficit schizophrenia.

Converging models of schizophrenia--Network alterations of prefrontal cortex underlying cognitive impairments.

The thalamus (comprising many distinct nuclei) plays a key role in facilitating sensory discrimination and cognitive processes through connections with the cortex. Impaired thalamocortical processing has long been considered to be involved in schizophrenia. In this review we focus on the thalamic reticular nucleus (TRN) providing evidence for it being an important communication hub between the thalamus and cortex and how it may play a key role in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. We first highlight the functional neuroanatomy, neurotransmitter localisation and physiology of the TRN. We then present evidence of the physiological roles of the TRN in relation to oscillatory activity, cognition and behaviour. Next we discuss the role of the TRN in rodent models of risk factors for schizophrenia (genetic and pharmacological) and provide evidence for TRN deficits in schizophrenia. Finally we discuss new drug targets for schizophrenia in relation to restoring TRN circuitry dysfunction.

/pdf/the-thalamic-reticular-nucleus-a-functional-hub-for-2eadppoeee.pdf

The thalamic reticular nucleus: a functional hub for thalamocortical network dysfunction in schizophrenia and a target for drug discovery

Schizophrenia is a debilitating psychiatric disease with a strong genetic contribution, potentially linked to altered glutamatergic function in brain regions such as the prefrontal cortex (PFC). Here, we report converging evidence to support a functional candidate gene for schizophrenia. In post-mortem PFC from patients with schizophrenia, we detected decreased expression of MKK7/MAP2K7—a kinase activated by glutamatergic activity. While mice lacking one copy of the Map2k7 gene were overtly normal in a variety of behavioural tests, these mice showed a schizophrenia-like cognitive phenotype of impaired working memory. Additional support for MAP2K7 as a candidate gene came from a genetic association study. A substantial effect size (odds ratios: ∼1.9) was observed for a common variant in a cohort of case and control samples collected in the Glasgow area and also in a replication cohort of samples of Northern European descent (most significant P-value:3 3 1024). While some caution is warranted until these association data are further replicated, these resultsare the first to implicate the candidate gene MAP2K7 in genetic risk for schizophrenia. Complete sequencing of all MAP2K7 exons did not reveal any non-synonymous mutations. However, the MAP2K7 haplotype appeared to have functional effects, in that it influenced the level of expression of MAP2K7 mRNA in humanPFC. Taken together, the results imply that reduced function of the MAP2K7-c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) signalling cascade may underlie some of the neurochemical changes and core symptoms in schizophrenia.

Converging evidence that sequence variations in the novel candidate gene MAP2K7 (MKK7) are functionally associated with schizophrenia

Background Decreased metabolic activity in the prefrontal cortex during cognitive activation is a recurrent finding and a likely functional marker of schizophrenia.

Aims To investigate the occurrence of hypofrontality in patients with first-episode psychosis, with or without evolution to schizophrenia.

Method We used fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography during the performance of an attention task and magnetic resonance imaging to study the dorsolateral prefrontal region in 13 men with a first episode of psychosis. Data from patients who progressed to schizophrenia were compared with those of patients who did not meet criteria for this diagnosis after 2 years.

Results Patients who developed schizophrenia demonstrated a significant hypofrontality in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in comparison with the non-schizophrenia and control groups.

Conclusions Our results suggest that hypofrontality could be a marker of schizophrenia at the time of the first psychotic episode, in agreement with neurodevelopmental theories of schizophrenia.

/pdf/hypofrontality-in-men-with-first-episode-psychosis-nt9anl49nl.pdf

Hypofrontality in men with first-episode psychosis.

The standard template provided with the statistical software package SPM'99 was originally developed for /sup 15/O-H/sub 2/O PET scans in resting condition with eyes closed This template is commonly applied regardless of the tracer actually used in the scans being analyzed This work studies the effect of three different normalization templates in the outcome of the statistical analyses of PET scans, as compared to a reference normalization Results show that the use of the standard template in adverse conditions-different tracer, different cerebral condition-may introduce errors in the interpretation of the results of the statistical analysis

Effect of the normalization template in statistical parametric mapping of PET scans

Background Decreasedmetabolicactivityintheprefrontalcortexduringcognitiveactivationisarecurrentfindingcognitive activationis arecurrentfindingandalikelyfunctionalmarkerofandalikely functionalmarkerofschizophrenia.Aims Toinvestigatetheoccurrenceofhypofrontalityinpatientswithfirst-episodepsychosis, withorwithoutevolutiontoschizophrenia.evolutionto schizophrenia.Method Weusedfluorodeoxyglucosepositronemissiontomographyduringtheperformanceofanattentiontaskandmagneticresonanceimagingtostudythedorsolateralprefrontalregionin13 menwithafirstepisodeofpsychosis.Datafrompatientswhoprogressedtoschizophreniawerecomparedwiththoseofpatientswho didnotmeetcriteriafor thisdiagnosisafter 2years.after2 years.Results Patientswho developedPatientswhodevelopedschizophreniademonstrateda significanthypofrontalityinthedorsolateralprefrontalcortexincomparisonwiththenon-schizophrenia andcontrolgroups.non-schizophreniaandcontrolgroups.Conclusions Ourresultssuggestthathypofrontalitycouldbeamarkerofschizophreniaatthetimeofthefirstschizophrenia atthetime ofthefirstpsychoticepisode, inagreementwithpsychoticepisode,inagreementwithneurodevelopmentaltheoriesofschizophrenia.Declarationof interest None.Fundingdetailedin Acknowledgements.FundingdetailedinAcknowledgements.

Hypofrontality in men with first-episode psychosis Hypofrontality in men with first-episode psychosis

Handle everyday research tasks with reliable, citation-backed results

Your personal Research Agent to handle research tasks with citation-backed results

Popular Tasks used by Researchers

How can I help with your research?

Meet SciSpace

Get more enhanced response by uploading the PDFs you want me to reference.

No relevant PDFs in your library

SciSpace is the AI research assistant for academics. Run systematic literature reviews on 280M+ papers, and write papers with cited sources. Trusted by 1M+ students, PhDs & researchers.

SciSpace | AI for Research

Analyze PDFs

Code & Manuscripts

Funding & Grants

Literature & Patents

Medical & Clinical Data

Systematic Review

Visualize & Present

Web & Data

Build a Google Scholar-like website for your research.

Build a website

Create charts and images for your research

Create a Chart

Write a paper for submission to a journal

Draft a manuscript

Patent Search

Design eye-catching scientific posters in minutes.

Scientific Poster Generation

Systematic Literature Review

One task is running at the moment. Your messages will be shown right after.

Drag and drop or click here to browse

Loved by <highlight>1 million+</highlight> researchers

Extract a list of specific topics and their sources from unstructured text

Topics

Compare and analyze relevant papers that matches with your search

Papers

Get insights from PDFs and bookmarked papers from your library

My library

Recent searches

Try searching for:

Catch AI-generated content in scholarly and non-scholarly content

{ai} Detector

Ai Writer

Get PDF Summaries, highlighted text explanations 

Chat with PDF

Effortlessly create in-text citations and bibliographies in APA and 2,500 other formats

Citation generator

Get explanations, summaries, and answers on academic papers

Ease up your research workflow with {scispace}'s cohort of exciting AI tools

Elevate your academic writing skills and convey your ideas the way you want

Paraphraser

Explore our range of reading and writing tools

Your file is being prepared and should be ready in a few minutes. If it's a large file, it might take a bit longer. You can close this window, and we'll email you the file when it's done.

You have reached a maximum limit of <strong>{limit}</strong> columns in the table. Remove at least <strong>1</strong> column to add or create another one.

R. Martinez

Author Tools

Chat about Author

Papers

Hypofrontality in men with first-episode psychosis.

Effect of the normalization template in statistical parametric mapping of PET scans

Hypofrontality in men with first-episode psychosis Hypofrontality in men with first-episode psychosis