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AriannahM's picture

Malfunctioning Action Potentials = Mental Illness?

If all of our thoughts and actions are generated by action potentials and synapses firing away, are all mental illnesses malfunctions of action potentials? I wrote my web paper about the prenatal causes of schizophrenia and it really got me thinking about this. Many research studies have implicated prenatal and birth complications as the causes of schizophrenia. Schizophrenia doesn’t develop until early adulthood (late teenage years to late twenties). Usually those who are affected by schizophrenia lead normal lives until their symptoms start. If schizophrenia is a mental illness (which it is) and mental functioning is controlled by firing action potentials, then why can the actions potentials work properly for twenty years before “malfunctioning”?

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