Neuroimmunological Aberrations and Cerebral Asymmetry Abnormalities in Schizophrenia: Select Perspectives on Pathogenesis

Abstract

Within the wide-ranging gamut of factors that comprise gene-environment interactions postulated to underlie schizophrenia, the crosstalk between environmental factors and feto-maternal immune components has been put forth as one of the important mechanisms that increase the risk towards schizophrenia in the offspring. Interestingly, immune factors have been shown to critically modulate the brain development during the prenatal stages. Moreover the past many decades, influential theoretical propositions and evidence base (albeit not unequivocally) have compellingly linked prenatal sex hormonal status to critically provoke long lasting immunological changes and subsequently affect developmental programming of cerebral asymmetry in schizophrenia. In this review, we summarize the select perspectives emphasizing the role of neuroimmunoendocrine pathways in anomalous cerebral asymmetry in contemporary understanding of schizophrenia pathogenesis.

Serum Levels of High Sensitivity C-reactive Protein in Drug-naïve First-episode Psychosis and Acute Exacerbation of Schizophrenia

“…Immune system dysregulation has a substantial place in the evidences related to etiopathogenesis of schizophrenia 20–22). It is thought to be there is a close relation between autoimmune processes and some subgroups of schizophrenia 23).…”

Occipital bending in schizophrenia

“…There is research suggesting reduced cerebral asymmetry in schizophrenia (Crow, 2008; Venkatasubramanian and Debnath, 2014), particularly of the superior temporal gyrus (Shenton et al, 2001). However, the literature is inconsistent as it has been reported that those with schizophrenia have an enlarged or reduced left planum temporale and Heschl’s gyrus, which are regions central to receptive language (Guo et al, 2014).…”

Understanding Schizophrenia as a Disorder of Consciousness: Biological Correlates and Translational Implications from Quantum Theory Perspectives

“… 83 , 98 ) Finally, BDNF also links microtubules with cell signalling pathways (Akt/GSK) as well as cell cycle involvement in schizophrenia pathogenesis 89 , 99 ); in addition, microtubule is intricately connected with these biological pathways as well 99 ) as well as with the immune pathogenetic perspectives 100 ) in schizophrenia. 101 ) In summary, microtubule mediated mechanisms provide an overarching link that cut across several disparate but critical pathobiological mechanisms of schizophrenia.…”

“…While these “left-hemisphere dominance failure” findings have been conceptualized as “abnormal” in their tendency to increase of a person’s proclivity towards psychosis, evolutionary theories on psychosis propose an alternative possibility that some of these traits might be of critical utility in survival advantages. 101 , 110 , 111 ) It has been proposed that this dominance failure (and consequent right hemisphere over activation) facilitates the emergence of paranormal and delusion-like ideas by way of right hemispheric associative processing characteristics, 112 ) that is, coarse rather than focused semantic activation. In this context, transliminality based research paradigms offer a unique platform to explore the interactions between the biology of consciousness and the clinical/cognitive/experiential components as well as evolutionary neuroscience constructs through several brain imaging research tools.…”