Aakancha Shaw, St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata
A new study shows that there were critical links between the minds of humans and mice in how they function – and malfunction. The ways by which the brain produces hallucinations provide a promising entry point to the development of much-needed new therapies for schizophrenia.
Psychosis is a condition when a person loses touch with reality i.e. people may acquire false beliefs (delusions) or confidently experience hallucinations. A psychotic episode can be indicative of a serious mental illness such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, but people without mental illness also can experience symptoms such as hallucinations.
The mice were trained by the researchers to complete a computer-based task that induced them to hear imaginary sounds. Then the performance of the task was evaluated, and it was used to objectively measure hallucination-like events in mice. This technique allowed scientists to study the neural circuits lying hallucinations and opening mental signs to the scientific studies that have been so useful for diseases of other sections of the human body.
When they were studying mice, the researchers observed that preceding hallucination-like events, elevations in dopamine levels were observed, and hence artificially boosting dopamine levels induced more hallucination-like events. Administering the anti-psychotic drug haloperidol, which blocks dopamine could successfully block these behavioral effects.
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Source: K. Schmack, M. Bosc, T. Ott, J. F. Sturgill, A. Kepecs. Striatal dopamine mediates hallucination-like perception in mice. Science, 2021; 372 (6537): eabf4740 DOI: 10.1126/science.abf4740
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