Schizophrenia, a disability causing the person possessing it to learn at a slower pace, hallucinate, and obtain several social disorders, had long troubled researchers as to where the disorder occurred. Researchers found that Mediodorsal Thalamus, or MD, a place where signals are transported to and from the prefrontal cortex, if disrupted would cause symptoms close to those of schizophrenia.
Researchers conducted two tests, one on mice with severed MD and another on mice with normal MD. The tests consisted of a lever or a maze of some sort which would change after a set amount of trials, and timed to see the difference between the two category of mice. Results showed that the mice with the severed MD took longer than the mice with the normal MD in to receive the treat.
This is important because researchers believe that this information could lead to construct a treatment for cognitive functions
NOS:
Science is based on evidence, in this experiment researchers experimented on mice in order to see the affects of a normal MD to that of a severed MD. The research provided evidence that the condition of the MD affects the how people behave and learn.
Science is collaborative, in this experiment researchers worked together to teach the mice how to pass the test and receive their treats as well as severing the MD.
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/349061/description/Disrupted_brain_chatter_produces_schizophrenia-like_symptoms_in_mice
Another possible NOS theme: Science is tentative. When the researchers saw that people with schizophrenia had less active MDs, they didn't immediately assume that this was the cause of schizophrenia. They did this experiment to test it.
ReplyDeleteI think it would be great if they could find a cause for this disease because if is much easy to treat something if you know its origin. One question i have is, what causes the MD to become severed?
ReplyDeleteSchizophrenia, which is a lifelong (chronic) condition, has some treatments available already. Medications that exist currently do not help with the cognitive functions involved in this test, but help to manage the other aspects of the condition including hallucinations and social disorders. Psychiatrists are also very helpful in establishing what is real or fake in the hallucianations of the schizophrenic (http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/schizophrenia/DS00196/DSECTION=treatments%2Dand%2Ddrugs). An additional NOS theme that I found besides Dawit’s and Julia’s is the importance of repeatability. This was present because the scientists tested with multiple mice with both severed MD and normal MD.
ReplyDeleteI wonder how this will affect the treatment of other types of mental disorders.
ReplyDeleteFrom prior knowledge, schizophrenia is an inherited disease that doesn't always appear at the same strength or even at all in the offspring of those with the disorder. While this is one of the more severe, there are many mental disorders similar to schizophrenia that could also be affected by this MD part of the brain. At least, this shows that scientists are gaining a greater understanding of the brain that could lead them to the part of the brain that does affect other mental abilities or disabilities.
I also found a recent article that addresses a new discovery in the treatment of schizophrenia: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/257652.php