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Is More Cognitive Experimental Psychopathology of Schizophrenia Really Necessary? Challenges and Opportunities

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The Handbook of Neuropsychiatric Biomarkers, Endophenotypes and Genes

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Abstract

After a promising start, the cognitive experimental psychopathological approach to schizophrenia has run into diffi culties. Despite the observation that behavioral impairments constitute the largest effect sizes in schizophrenia, the wide-spread nature of these impairments suggest that they are likely the downstream effects of undifferentiated, upstream neuronal causes. In addition to the prominence of generalized defi cits, experimental psychopathology faces the combined challenge that (1) few behavioral paradigms can mitigate between competing theories of schizophrenia, and (2) according to some reviewers, behavioral measures have not helped to identify genes associated with schizophrenia. Thus, much of schizophrenia science considers the elegant behavioral experiments of experimental psychopathology to be a sideshow to the real work of understanding the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. Meanwhile, this “real work” is proceeding in the absence of intermediate behavioral measures of any kind. For example, functional imaging data from rest and default networks reliably differentiates between schizophrenia patients and patients with other diagnoses. The beginning of the chapter describes these challenges to the fi eld of cognitive experimental psychopathology. The remainder of the chapter addresses these objections to illustrate how cognitive experimental methods can adapt and continue to advance the theory and practice of schizophrenia research.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departments of Psychology and Psychiatry, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA

    Angus W. MacDonald (Associate Professor)

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  1. Angus W. MacDonald
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa

    Michael S. Ritsner M.D., Ph.D. (Associate Professor of Psychiatry, the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine Technion) (Associate Professor of Psychiatry, the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine Technion)

  2. Sha'ar Menashe Mental Health Center, Hadera, Israel

    Michael S. Ritsner M.D., Ph.D. (Associate Professor of Psychiatry, the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine Technion) (Associate Professor of Psychiatry, the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine Technion)

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MacDonald, A.W. (2009). Is More Cognitive Experimental Psychopathology of Schizophrenia Really Necessary? Challenges and Opportunities. In: Ritsner, M.S. (eds) The Handbook of Neuropsychiatric Biomarkers, Endophenotypes and Genes. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-9464-4_9

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