Hearing voices is one of the most common symptoms of schizophrenia. It occurs because information is poorly transmitted to the brain, according to a study.
“When a man talks to God, we say he prays. When God speaks to a man, he is said to be schizophrenic, ”wrote Hungarian psychiatrist Thomas Szasz. Auditory hallucination is one of the most common symptoms of schizophrenia. This June 6 in Science, an American team explains why schizophrenic patients often suffer from it.
To explain the brain mechanisms of auditory hallucination, researchers at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital studied mice with a human genetic disease known as chromosome 22q11 deletion syndrome. In 30% of patients with this disease, schizophrenia develops. Affected mice, like schizophrenic patients, suffer from learning and memorization problems.
A receiver too present
If auditory hallucination is so common in schizophrenics, it is because there are problems with the flow of information between different brain structures. The nerve impulse in the neurons of the auditory thalamus is reduced in these patients. Indeed, the dopamine receptor is expressed too much and blocks the signals which must reach the auditory thalamus, which favors the appearance of auditory hallucinations, delusions and other psychotic symptoms.
Thanks to this study, we better understand how antipsychotics that calm auditory hallucinations work: they block the dopamine receptor. “We believe that by reducing the flow of information between these two brain structures that play a central role in the processing of auditory information, we can reduce the state of stress and other associated factors that trigger ‘voices’, which are the most common psychotic symptom of schizophrenia ”, explains the corresponding author, Stanislav Zakharenko. But the researchers mostly hope that these findings will help the development of new drugs with the same benefits, but with fewer side effects.
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