Neural Explanation - Dopamine Hypothesis

• Neural - neurotransmitter, chemical or electrical activity in the brain that impacts upon behaviour
• Dopamine:

  • chemical substance manufactured in the brain that transmits messages between neurons
  • appears to work differently in patients with schizophrenia
  • important in functioning of several brain systems that may cause symptoms of schizophrenia in particular the cortex and sub-cortex
• Hyperdopaminergia:

  • high dopamine levels in the brains area e.g. Broca's area
  • this is because too many dopamine receptors going towards Broca's area from the subcortex
  • explain symptoms such as speech poverty and auditory hallucinations
• Hypodopaminergia:

  • low dopamine levels in brain areas such as the pre-frontal cortex (responsible for thinking)
  • it could explain symptoms such as avolition
• • genetics can cause a predisposition to this and then stress can make people more sensitive to hyper and hypo dopaminergia leading to schizophrenia