Ever heard of schizophrenia? Those who suffer from it usually are characterized by their hallucinations and delusion thinking. For generations, this mental illness has proven to be an enigma to scientists; however it became slightly less mysterious late January after the discovery of the role genetics plays. It is natural for the average human’s brain to undergo synaptic pruning, a process in which the brain disposes of useless connections between neurons as it ages; however, “people with schizophrenia have a gene variant that apparently facilitates aggressive ‘tagging’ of connections for pruning, in effect accelerating the process.” In addition, MHC is a human genome that is usually mentioned in previous studies relating to the disorder; in fact a 2007 study displayed MHC’s involvement in synaptic pruning. A research team, led by Steven McCarroll and Aswin Sekar found that the MHC contains four common variants of a gene called C4 which then produced C4-A and C4-B, two kinds of proteins. Upon analyzation of 64,000 people, the study confirmed that schizophrenia patients were prone to have overactive forms of C4-A compared to the others. Dr. Steven’s lab mice with the C4 genes expressed blatant signs of something wrong in synaptic pruning. This led to the conclusion that overproduction of C4-A could result in too much pruning, which would explain the thinner prefrontal layers in schizophrenic patients and why most patients are so young (teenagers/twenties) However despite this leap of knowledge, much is to be questioned in the field of biological psychiatry. “Carrying a gene variant that facilitates aggressive pruning is hardly enough to cause schizophrenia; far too many other factors are at work. Having such a variant, Dr. McCarroll estimates, would increase a person’s risk by about 25 percent over the 1 percent base rate of schizophrenia — that is, to 1.25 percent.”Although the new finding will not lead to new treatments or medication soon, it marks the beginning to truly understanding the disorder.
The article made it blatant that the field of biological psychiatry is an painstaking one. Human psychology does share its roots within biology in the end, however uncovering these roots are harder as there is so much unknown about the field due to amount of unwarranted factors present. Although the newfound understanding gained from McCarrol and Sekar’s work cannot automatically lead to treatments, it allows for others researchers to build upon their research and ultimately paves a route for the creation of possible treatments.
The strengths within the article was clearly the amount of research the author put into comprehending this intricate topic as well as quote integration and citing data as well. However, I felt there were some weaknesses within the author’s strengths such as the overflow of information. I had to read the article several times before I actually could understand what exactly I had read. Also some of the quotes were a bit simplistic, merely confirming something the author had already written. Overall it was a really interesting read, but if the author worked on simple things like simplifying what exactly was so groundbreaking about the discovery of the researchers I think this would have made a huge difference.
Hyperlink:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/28/health/schizophrenia-cause-synaptic-pruning-brain-psychiatry.html?_r=0
Carey, Benedict. "Scientists Move Closer to Understanding Schizophrenia’s Cause." The New York
Times. The New York Times, 27 Jan. 2016. Web. 07 Feb. 2016.
Indira,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your review on the article "Scientists Move Closer to Understanding Schizophrenia’s Cause." I have also wondered about schizophrenia, and your review was very informative and was well written, it flowed very nicely. Specifically the first paragraph summarizing the article. The first paragraph was long enough and included necessary information. Such as brief overview of schizophrenia, then what goes on in the brain etc, for someone with schizophrenia, finally what is believed to cause schizophrenia. Another aspect that was done well was you clearly stated what you personally got from the article. Which helped me broaden my understanding of the article.
In the review you do say that there was an overflow of information in the article, so I understand that it is hard to pick out the important information. However, in your first paragraph although it was nice having a lot of information to clearly understand the article, you could possibly further improve the review by shortening the paragraph. Since the first paragraph is suppose to be a summary. Another suggestion could be to add more questions that you personally have. However, your review was very good.
After reading this review I was able to feel a sense of relief that even though this discovery isn’t a major one. It is one step closer to better understanding schizophrenia.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading the review of the New York Times article, “Scientists Move Closer to Understanding Schizophrenia’s Cause.” Role genetics play and the typical mechanisms of the brain were clearly explained. Synaptic pruning is the process in which the brain disposes of useless connections between neurons as the individual ages. However, people with schizophrenia have a gene variant that facilitates aggressive “tagging” of connections for pruning, speeding up the process. All previous studies relating to schizophrenia were included in the review making the new research easier to understand. A 2007 study about MHC showed its involvement in synaptic pruning. The research team, led by Steven McCarroll and Aswin Sekar, found that the MHC contains four common variants of a gene called C4, which then produced C4-A and C4-B, two different kinds of proteins. The scientists then analyzed 64,000 people, confirming that schizophrenia patients have overactive forms of C4-A compared to others. The overproduction of C4-A results in too much pruning, creating a thinner prefrontal layer in schizophrenic patients. These is why most people afflicted with schizophrenia are so young. The use of quotations strengthened the analysis and discrepancies of the new research. Steven McCarroll states that, “Carrying a gene variant that facilitates aggressive pruning is hardly enough to cause schizophrenia; far too many other factors are at work.” However, having such a variant “...would increase a person’s risk by about 25 percent over the 1 percent base rate of schizophrenia — that is, to 1.25 percent.”
ReplyDeleteThis new research is groundbreaking. The summarization was concise and informative. It would have been interesting to hear more about the actual disease of schizophrenia; its symptoms and its characterizations. Furthermore, the quotations overall strengthened the review of the article but some of the quotes included could have just been paraphrased.
Schizophrenia and the field of biological psychiatry is complicated. However, this new research can lead to treatment of schizophrenia. This research defined the connection between the phenomenon of genetic pruning and schizophrenia.
Carey, Benedict. "Scientists Move Closer to Understanding Schizophrenia’s Cause." The New York Times. The New York Times, 27 Jan. 2016. Web. 07 Feb. 2016.
"Scientists Move Closer to Understanding Schizophrenia’s Cause"
ReplyDeleteGreat article choice Indira; I enjoyed how you began your review with a rhetorical question about schizophrenia to get the reader thinking. The way you defined a person with schizophrenia worked well with the initial flow of the review. The topic of schizophrenia is quite intriguing because we do not know much about it, but recently a discovery around the role of genetics in this disease was uncovered. I like how you used a quote from the article regarding the way neuron connections are dealt with in humans with schizophrenia and without it. The quote helped because it was not too long and it followed an explanation in your own words about the synaptic pruning process in humans. This review used a lot of examples like the different overactive proteins found in people with schizophrenia, which was a mixture of good analysis and concrete facts. Relating these proteins back to their abnormalities associated with schizophrenia and the pruning process helped this stay on topic.
This article was interesting and helps us understand more about schizophrenia, however it does not create new treatments or cures. I enjoyed reading this article and your review because I have always found schizophrenia interesting yet confusing. This article will hopefully lead to scientists discovering more about this disease. The author did a nice job of compiling information which is further shown through your analysis. You also did a great job of identifying the author’s weaknesses and strengths. As far as addressing the weaknesses of your review, I couldn’t find many. It seems like you put a lot of effort into this review, and it paid off. I don’t know if I learned too much from your review though because the facts supplied from the article were a bit confusing, and didn’t prove a strong point. However that is the fault of the author of the article. I chose to read your review and article because its title was the most interesting out of the other ones posted. This article gave me insight into how much goes into understanding a disease, and that although we have come far with some treatments, it needs to be further investigated.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/28/health/schizophrenia-cause-synaptic-pruning-brain-psychiatry.html?_r=0
Carey, Benedict. "Scientists Move Closer to Understanding Schizophrenia’s Cause." The New York
Times. The New York Times, 27 Jan. 2016. Web. 07 Feb. 2016.
ReplyDeleteI read the review of the article “Scientist Move Closer to Understanding Schizophrenia’s Cause.” Indira did a good job explaining what scientist believe to be the cause of schizophrenia. People who have schizophrenia have an increase in the amount of synaptic pruning that their brain does. This is controlled by genetic factors. It was also said that the gene that is changed only increases your chances of having schizophrenia by 25 percent and because one percent of the total population has schizophrenia. Indira explained that although we now know one of the causes of schizophrenia no cure will be developed anytime soon and it will still be hard to treat.
I thought that some of the language used in the article was hard to understand and would have liked it if Indira simplified it in her review, so I could better understand what she was talking about. I would have liked to know more about past research done on schizophrenia and how that impacted this stuff. I little more background on the disease would have been nice too.
This article helped me understand how schizophrenia works and how treatment in the future could possibly work. It is crazy to me that 1 percent of the population has schizophrenia, but we never really talk about it, or any other mental illness.
Great review Indira! You gave a good summary-- it was cohesive and easy to understand, while also giving all the important information and covering all the points of the article. Additionally, your explanations were well written. I really understood the science behind schizophrenia and how revolutionary this new discovery of the different genes is. Another great point of your review was the second paragraph: it was a great addition that connected really well to the real world. The quote from an important scientist was also a strong part that clarified how this new type of transplants would hopefully be received.
ReplyDeleteAlthough your review was extremely strong, to make it stronger I would add more information, such as why past research on schizophrenia was unsuccessful and how this study was different from the rest. Other than that, your review was stellar.
The most interesting thing to me in this article was the fact that this discovery could help so many people with their mental illness! Although this research will not lead directly to treatment for the disease, it will still offer insight into how it can be treated in the future, which is a big deal for many people.
Carey, Benedict. "Scientists Move Closer to Understanding Schizophrenia’s Cause." The New York Times. The New York Times, 27 Jan. 2016. Web. 07 Feb. 2016. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/28/health/schizophrenia-cause-synaptic-pruning-brain-psychiatry.html?_r=0
Indira,
ReplyDeleteI thought you did a great job reviewing your article regarding recent discoveries pertaining to the disease schizophrenia. First, you clearly described what the disease was, and then moved on to explain the delusions and hallucinations those who have it endure. Also, you did a good explaining the connection between C4-A, a neural protein, and overactive synaptic pruning, which causes an excess of brain neurons to be destroyed and results in schizophrenia. Lastly, I liked how you included a direct quote from a scientist involved, which at the same time explained the increased odds people with overactive C4-A had of developing schizophrenia. In terms of how you could have improved your review, I found that the data you presented regarding increased risks not to make sense. Also, I think you could included more as to how schizophrenia affects the everyday activities of an individual, and also what can be done to mediate negative symptoms. In terms of why I was interested in this review, I chose it because we talked about schizophrenia quite thoroughly in health class and wanted to expand my own knowledge of the disease.
ReplyDeleteI am happy because today i am a living testimony. i want all here to know how i was cured of my schizophrenia. i was diagnosed of schizophrenia some months back. And my health begins to deteriorate gradually. It got to the extent that the symptoms was now all over my body. i have spent thousands of $$ in search for a cure but my doctor keep telling me no cure. i almost gave up. But on a very faithful day as my daughter was browsing on the internet, she saw someone who testified of how a herbal doctor by the name Doctor Ehidiamen cured him of his disease with the use of herbs. So she tried to get in contact with this doctor, and after she explain to him, he assured her that he can cure me of my schizophrenia. He gave me the steps to follow, i followed it and he prepared the herbs and send it to me in USA. i took the mixture according to his prescription and behold it worked perfectly for me. Today i am happy to say i totally cured of my schizophrenia and my family is happy together again. Please i want you all suffering from schizophrenia, or other brain related problem to also get cured just as i was cured. for this reason i want you all to contact the herbal doctor Ehidiamen. His email is email is: doctorehidiamen@gmail.com and his phone number is +2348102802949. Just explain to him what you are passing through and get his counsel and treatment. Thanks to you all.