Hi Steven! This is an old post, so you probably won’t reply, but I’d appreciate it if you did! What do you think might be going on in the brains of schizophrenics with high intelligence? I know schizophrenia is typically associated with MRI abnormalities and lower intelligence, but this isn’t always the case! At least for me, my MRI came back normal, and my cognitive abilities were sufficient to do well in upper level math courses at a competitive university: even during my prodromal period. I actually deal with hypersensitivity as well, so taking a very shallow understanding of your post and applying it to me, might my brain have a quirk that enables strong intracircuit communication (resulting in strong working memory and processing speed and hypersensitivity), but not intercircuit communication (resulting in hallucinations/paranoia as downsides but a high DAT score as an upside?)?
Hmm. I don’t really know! But it’s fun to speculate…
Possibility 1: Like you said, maybe strong short-range cortex-to-cortex communication + weak long-range cortex-to-cortex communication? I haven’t really thought about how that would manifest.
Possibility 2: In terms of positive symptoms specifically, one can ask the question: “weak long-range cortex-to-cortex communication … compared to what?” And my answer is: “…compared to cortex output signals”. See Model of psychosis, take 2.
…Which suggests a hypothesis: someone could have unusually trigger-happy cortex output signals. Then they would have positive schizophrenia symptoms without their long-range cortex-to-cortex communication being especially weak on an absolute scale, and therefore they would have less if any cognitive symptoms.
(I’m not mentioning schizophrenia negative symptoms because I don’t understand those very well.)
I guess Possibility 1 & 2 are not mutually exclusive. There could also be other possibilities I’m not thinking of.
Hmm, “Unusually trigger-happy cortex output signals” theory might explain hypersensitivity too, or maybe not, I’m not sure, I think it depends on details of how it manifests.
Hi Steven! This is an old post, so you probably won’t reply, but I’d appreciate it if you did! What do you think might be going on in the brains of schizophrenics with high intelligence? I know schizophrenia is typically associated with MRI abnormalities and lower intelligence, but this isn’t always the case! At least for me, my MRI came back normal, and my cognitive abilities were sufficient to do well in upper level math courses at a competitive university: even during my prodromal period. I actually deal with hypersensitivity as well, so taking a very shallow understanding of your post and applying it to me, might my brain have a quirk that enables strong intracircuit communication (resulting in strong working memory and processing speed and hypersensitivity), but not intercircuit communication (resulting in hallucinations/paranoia as downsides but a high DAT score as an upside?)?
Hmm. I don’t really know! But it’s fun to speculate…
Possibility 1: Like you said, maybe strong short-range cortex-to-cortex communication + weak long-range cortex-to-cortex communication? I haven’t really thought about how that would manifest.
Possibility 2: In terms of positive symptoms specifically, one can ask the question: “weak long-range cortex-to-cortex communication … compared to what?” And my answer is: “…compared to cortex output signals”. See Model of psychosis, take 2.
…Which suggests a hypothesis: someone could have unusually trigger-happy cortex output signals. Then they would have positive schizophrenia symptoms without their long-range cortex-to-cortex communication being especially weak on an absolute scale, and therefore they would have less if any cognitive symptoms.
(I’m not mentioning schizophrenia negative symptoms because I don’t understand those very well.)
I guess Possibility 1 & 2 are not mutually exclusive. There could also be other possibilities I’m not thinking of.
Hmm, “Unusually trigger-happy cortex output signals” theory might explain hypersensitivity too, or maybe not, I’m not sure, I think it depends on details of how it manifests.