A study by researchers at the University of Cambridge and King’s College London have found that problems in how the brain recognizes and processes new information is at the root of psychosis. This was reported in the Rethink Mental Illness publication Your Voice.
The results describe how the neurotransmitter dopamine ‘tunes’ the brain to a given situation and helps us to respond appropriately – by either updating our model of reality or discarding the information as unimportant.
Patients with psychosis have faulty brain activation in a brain region called the superior frontal cortex which is important for signalling the correct degree of learning required and this therefore could lead them to believe things that are not real.
To read more about the research go to https://www.kcl.ac.uk/news/faulty-brain-processing-of-new-information-underlies-psychotic-delusions-finds-new-research
