New research published in the Journal of Neuroscience suggests that
people are able to distinguish what is real from what is imagined because of
the paracingulate sulcus, a
fold in part of the prefrontal cortex.
Astonishingly 27% of people in the world are missing this fold in their
brain. However, what is really important
about this study is what it may lead to in the treatment of schizophrenia. This disease is when one cannot distinguish
between real and imagined voices. As one
could imagine it is a truly terrible disease to suffer from. The research found that 44% of people who had
schizophrenia did not have the paracingulate sulcus fold in their brain. Because this fold helps to distinguish the
real from the fake, it is easy to see how it could be a contributing factor to
schizophrenia. Of course there are more
factors to what causes schizophrenia, because 27% of the world’s population
does not suffer from the disease.
Schizophrenia is theorized to be developed in the womb, and then not
trigger until adulthood. Because the
paracingulate sulcus is formed in the womb it very may well be a part of the
disease. That knowledge could help in
the treatment of the disease.
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