I’m a Scientist is like school science lessons meet the X Factor! School students choose which scientist gets a prize of $1000 to communicate their work.
Scientists and students talk on this website. They both break down barriers, have fun and learn. But only the students get to vote.
This zone is the Organs Zone. It has scientists studying health and disease in various parts of our bodies. Who gets the prize? YOU decide!
I have seen some research that there is a connection between schizophrenia and how well the right and left hemispheres coordinate. But I don’t do brain research, so that’s the best I can do for an answer!
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Hi blairst,
This sounds like a question that Dr. Emma can help answer!
In my reading I have come across suggestions by neuroscientists that schizophrenia and autism are related neurological (brain) disorders- however both are quite complex and we don’t really know what causes them – that’s part of the reason which this is such an active and exciting area of research.
As for the relationship of these disorders with specific brain hemispheres – ie. left or right sided, some scientists have suggested that some forms of autism (asperger’s) resemble extreme characteristics of the left brain hemisphere such as having very good mathematical/deductive abilities, being very focused/obsessed with specific interests such as boats, dinosaurs or trains.
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Yeah, like Mel and Carina, i’m not a brain expert!!
But i do know that there’s lots of great research teams working on both autism and other kinds of mental health problems, and that we are learning more and more every day! 🙂
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People with schizophrenia have problems with language. They have difficulty in processing the meaning of language and also have disorganised speech. Our left hemisphere plays a dominant role in language and accordingly some scientists believe that there might be a problem with this hemisphere or that the right hemisphere is taking over processing speech in schizophrenia patients. They have found different activity in the brains of people with schizophrenia when they are performing language tasks compared to people with healthy brains.
Of course, because Schizophrenia is very complicated and there are many other symptoms like hallucinations and memory problems, this theory cannot explain all of the illness. The most popular theory is that there are problems with networks in the brain, the way that different areas of both hemispheres talk to each other, on both sides of the brain.
Mel is right, some links between Schizophrenia and Autism have been found but they are very different brain disorders, Schizophrenia develops in adolescence and Autism is detected around 2 years of age.
Some people with Autism have problems with language too, but these problems are related to learning to speak in the first place. Compared to people without Autism, there are reports of different brain hemispheres being used in Autism for language, in social situations and even for hearing and touch.
One of the most difficult things about understanding brain disorders like Autism and Schizophrenia is that almost everyone has different symptoms and responds differently to treatments. Because of this diversity the results of brain studies can be very varied. Scientists have to repeat their experiments many times in different people before they are sure that they have a finding that applies to everyone. I wish it was a yes or no answer!
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Not my field at all!! LOL
Emma’s got this covered 😀
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