In this short essay on the cognitive neuropsychology of schizophrenia author has considered only a very small fraction of the research on schizophrenia. He has concentrated on the psychological aspects of schizophrenia and say little about medical, epidemiological or sociological aspects.

There are many books covering these topics . Even within psychology he has restricted myself to a limited domain defined by the term “cognitive”. The Aim has been to describe the information processing abnormalities that underlie specific signs and symptoms associated with schizophrenia. The cognitive approach in psychology is essentially theory driven.

Theories are first presented, preferably in the form of “box and arrow” diagrams, then detailed hypotheses are derived and tested experimentally. Author has adopted precisely this approach in his considerations of the signs and symptoms of schizophrenia. As this is a relatively new approach to schizophrenia, the result is stronger on hypotheses than it is on experimental evidence.

However, his main intention in writing this essay is to convince the reader of the necessity for a cognitive approach to schizophrenic symptoms. The reader will then go out and seek experimental evidence relevant to those hypotheses that he or she finds most interesting.

Christopher D. Frith : Cognitive Neuropsychology of Schizophrenia 

CONTENTS:

1. THE NATURE OF SCHIZOPHRENIA

• What is schizophrenia
• Problems with diagnosis
• Classifying signs and symptoms
• Explaining schizophrenia or explaining symptoms?

2. BRAIN ABNORMALITIES IN SCHIZOPHRENIA

• The dopamine theory of schizophrenia
• Structural brain changes in schizophrenia
• Is schizophrenia a neurodegenerative disease?

3. LINKING THE MIND AND THE BRAIN 

• Some philosophical problems
• Problems in studying psychological impairments in schizophrenia
• Linking psychological abnormalities with brain dysfunction
• A neuropsychology of schizophrenia

4. BEHAVIOURAL ABNORMALITIES

• Negative and Positive signs
• How do the behavioural abnormalities of schizophrenia relate to the brain?
• Brain systems underlying the selection of action

5. POSITIVE SYMPTOMS, ABNORMAL EXPERIENCES

• Hallucinations 68 Delusions
• Does a single cognitive deficit underlie all positive symptoms?
• The brain systems associated with positive symptoms

6. COMMUNICATION IN SCHIZOPHRENIA

• Disorders of action
• Abnormalities of self-monitoring
• Abnormalities in the awareness of others
• Brain and language 108 Conclusions

7. SCHIZOPHRENIA AS A DISORDER OF SELF-AWARENESS

• Explaining the signs and symptoms of schizophrenia
• What is metarepresentation?
• Metarepresentation and schizophrenia
• Metarepresentation and the brain
• Conclusions

Language: English
Format: PDF
Pages: 91
Size:  8 mb