Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Contributors
- Preface
- NEURODEVELOPMENTAL MECHANISMS IN PSYCHOPATHOLOGY
- Part One Basic Mechanisms in Prenatal, Perinatal, and Postnatal Neurodevelopmental Processes and Their Associations with High-Risk Conditions and Adult Mental Disorders
- 1 Principles of Neurobehavioral Teratology
- 2 The Neurodevelopmental Consequences of Very Preterm Birth: Brain Plasticity and Its Limits
- 3 Neurodevelopment During Adolescence
- 5 Prenatal Risk Factors for Schizophrenia
- 5 Obstetric Complications and Neurodevelopmental Mechanisms in Schizophrenia
- 6 Maternal Influences on Prenatal Neural Development Contributing to Schizophrenia
- Part Two Animal Models of Neurodevelopment and Psychopathology
- Part Three Models of the Nature of Genetic and Environmental Influences on the Developmental Course of Psychopathology
- Part Four The Neurodevelopmental Course of Illustrative High-Risk Conditions and Mental Disorders
- Index
- References
6 - Maternal Influences on Prenatal Neural Development Contributing to Schizophrenia
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 August 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Contributors
- Preface
- NEURODEVELOPMENTAL MECHANISMS IN PSYCHOPATHOLOGY
- Part One Basic Mechanisms in Prenatal, Perinatal, and Postnatal Neurodevelopmental Processes and Their Associations with High-Risk Conditions and Adult Mental Disorders
- 1 Principles of Neurobehavioral Teratology
- 2 The Neurodevelopmental Consequences of Very Preterm Birth: Brain Plasticity and Its Limits
- 3 Neurodevelopment During Adolescence
- 5 Prenatal Risk Factors for Schizophrenia
- 5 Obstetric Complications and Neurodevelopmental Mechanisms in Schizophrenia
- 6 Maternal Influences on Prenatal Neural Development Contributing to Schizophrenia
- Part Two Animal Models of Neurodevelopment and Psychopathology
- Part Three Models of the Nature of Genetic and Environmental Influences on the Developmental Course of Psychopathology
- Part Four The Neurodevelopmental Course of Illustrative High-Risk Conditions and Mental Disorders
- Index
- References
Summary
Research has identified disturbances in the nervous system as underlying schizophrenia since Kraepelin (1919) first proposed the term dementia praecox. Ample evidence now supports this earlier speculation. More recent evidence has established a neurodevelopmental basis for schizophrenia and other major mental disorders (Akbarian et al., 1993; Mednick, Cannon, Barr, & Lyon, 1991; Mednick & Hollister, 1995; Machón, Mednick, & Huttunen, 1997). In this chapter we will examine some of this evidence establishing a neurodevelopmental basis for major mental disorders, including schizophrenia, as well as propose two related mechanisms involving maternal stress and immune response processes that may mediate the maternal infection and subsequent, adult mental disorder outcome.
FETAL NEURAL DEVELOPMENT
The development of fetal neural structures is a delicate process. Neurons creating the human neocortex proliferate by the fifth month of gestation. Rapid migration and differentiation occur in the central nervous system during the second trimester (CNS; Nowakowski, 1991). The cortical subplate, essential for the formation of the cerebral cortex, also develops during the second trimester. Disruption during a critical period of proliferation may dramatically disorganize neural development leading to observable physical anomalies. Jones and Akbarian (1995) conclude, however, that the existing data suggest as “unlikely that the proliferative phase of forebrain ontogenesis is compromised in any major way in schizophrenia” (p. 29).
Kovelman and Scheibel (1984) suggest that disrupted neural migration may result in the excess of ectopic neurons found in the hippocampi of schizophrenia patients.
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- Neurodevelopmental Mechanisms in Psychopathology , pp. 138 - 152Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2003
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