Difference Between Normal & Schizophrenic Brain

Schizophrenia, a devastating condition that disrupts people's ability to interpret the world around them, damages the lobes of the brain. The rate and extent of the damage depends on the age of the patient when the disease first strikes.

Definition

• The Mayo Clinic defines schizophrenia as a family of brain diseases that cause delusions and disorientation, making the sufferer unable to interact with the world in a normal manner.

Brain Damage

• According to Paul Thompson, professor of neurology at the University of California, Los Angeles, schizophrenia damages both the parietal lobe and the frontal lobe of the brain.

Manifestations

• Damage to the parietal lobe may explain the hallucinations of early schizophrenia. Once the damage spreads to the frontal lobe, it causes cognitive malfunctions.

Causes

• Thompson lists the three main theories behind schizophrenia: an acceleration of normal cell destruction, a lack of the myelin coating that helps transmit brain signals and overproduction of a chemical called dopamine.

Variations

• People who develop schizophrenia as teenagers lose more brain tissue than adult-onset patients. Thompson believes the disease may speed up the normal "pruning" of excess brain cells in younger people.