MIT Engineers World's First Schizophrenic Mice 159
Frosty Piss writes "MIT researchers have created a schizophrenic mouse that pinpoints a gene variation predisposing people to schizophrenia. Research with the mouse may lead to the first genetically targeted drugs for the disease, which affects 1 percent of the population worldwide. This is the first study that uses animals who demonstrate an array of symptoms observed in schizophrenic patients to identify specific genes that predispose people to the disease."
Wrong. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Wrong. (Score:5, Funny)
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But Brain (Score:3, Funny)
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This may be a really ignorant question, but... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:This may be a really ignorant question, but... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:This may be a really ignorant question, but... (Score:5, Informative)
Schizophrenia - Mice With Defective Memory May Hold Clues
Main Category: Schizophrenia News
Article Date: 23 Jan 2006 - 21:00 PDT
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Doesn't sound similar to me (Score:2)
That's not at all similar to schizophrenia in humans. A lot of schizophrenic humans are actually highly intelligent, and perfectly able to both lean and do (more than) simple associations. Their brain does work wrong, to different degrees and with a very broad
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I call BS (Score:2)
Most of us will not start throwing our feces at people by applying good logic to whatever real or imaginary input data.
As I was saying... (Score:2)
- paranoid type (the one I described already)
- disorganized type (where thought disorders do occur)
- catatonic type
- undifferentiated type
- residual type
Some include two further subtypes:
- post-schizophrenic depression (somewhat deceptively named, since schizophrenic symptoms are still more or les
Heh. Here's some free clue (Score:2)
Heh. Here's some free clue for you: you don't need any pre-requisites to start using your head. There's a reason why you have one on your shoulders, and it's not there just so it wouldn't rain straight down your throat.
No, seriously. Einstein was just a lowly patent office c
Re:This may be a really ignorant question, but... (Score:5, Informative)
Animal models of these complex psychiatric diseases are always a bit questionable. This one seems to have bad memory formation, attention problems, and poor social skills. The researchers believe that's enough to call it a model of schizophrenia, but that's very difficult to say for sure.
Re:This may be a really ignorant question, but... (Score:4, Informative)
Right. These are just 'schizotypical' symptomps. Many other disorders feature schizotypical behaviour, including several developmental disorders, such as multiple-complex developmental disorder [google.com] and other disorders like shizotypical personality disorder [psyonline.nl], which feature schizotypical behaviour but are not true schizophrenia. I suspect that these mice have more of the latter disorders (which are thought to be genetic) rather than actual schizophrenia (which may or may not be genetic).
Still useful (Score:1)
These are just 'schizotypical' symptomps. Many other disorders feature schizotypical behaviour, including several developmental disorders, such as multiple-complex developmental disorder [google.com] and other disorders like shizotypical personality disorder [psyonline.nl], which feature schizotypical behaviour but are not true schizophrenia.
But if results from these mice lead to a treatment for even one type of schizotypia in humans, that's still a leap forward for psychiatry nonetheless.
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Re:This may be a really ignorant question, but... (Score:4, Funny)
Wait. Are we talking about a mouse, or a guy with an iPhone at Starbucks?
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(I mean, *other* than that the latter posts on
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The latter group haven't been diagnosed yet?
But seriously, it's not just about changes in personality. One guy I knew heard voices. From what I've read and heard (radio, not voices), when schizophrenics hear voices telling them to do something, it's more powerful than anything real. I guess you could say that their brain hardware has been hacked.
Sooo, I guess
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Perhaps they're hearing squeaks? And the researchers observe that the schizophrenic mice will suddenly stop, listen, and then rush off to build a model of the Devil's Tower out of cheese.
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So there's your rough rule of thumb. If a totally hot chick is just
Not all schizophrenics are dicks (Score:3, Insightful)
A paranoid schizophrenic for example has (at least according to one theory), a pretty fuzzy line between fantasy and reality. At any rate, stuf originating purely in their imagination or beliefs gets mixed with the reality. They might hear voices, see stuff that isn't there, or feel or smell stuff that noone else can perceive. Where you might just imagine telling someone where to shove it, a schizophrenic mi
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It's just upset (Score:2)
Agreed.
For one thing, it may be just upset that someone messed with its DNA
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easy (Score:2)
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The mouse keeps talking to itself and is having paranoid thoughts about "people are out to get him". But the real give away is when the mouse believes it is a researcher in control of a giant computer called "Earth".
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The disease is not always your movie split personality.
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It's simple really. If it believes in Jesus, questions evolution, and has a conspiracy theorist right winged talk radio show.
They walk around muttering about... (Score:2)
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by its "mooing" (Score:2)
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and how do you diagnose this? (Score:2, Informative)
actually they dont even know how to diagnose it exactly.
"People diagnosed with schizophrenia usually experience a combination of positive (i.e. hallucinations, delusions, racing thoughts), negative (i.e. apathy, lack of emotion, poor or nonexistant social functioning), and cognitive (disorganized thoughts, difficulty concentrating and/or following instructions, difficulty completing tasks, memory problems). "
h [schizophrenia.com]
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But is it left handed? (Score:1)
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Yes, mod me into oblivion
Oblig. (Score:1, Funny)
Anyone else read the title wrong? (Score:2, Funny)
I read it as "Some group of MIT Engineers are the world's first schizophrenic mice"
The actual article is interesting, but not NEARLY as interesting as it could have been.
(it is early still)
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Re: MIT Engineers World's First Schizophrenic Mice (Score:1, Funny)
(Either that, or the mice think they're engineers.)
I'm conflicted (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:I'm conflicted (Score:5, Insightful)
Schizophrenia runs in my family
That's a tough one. I think it would be worth trading a lot of mice for a cure.
In the meantime it might be helpful to bring attention to the absolutely abysmal state of mental health care in this country. Something you won't know about unless you or a close relative has a serious mental illness. Half the people you see living on the street are there because they have mental illness and can't navigate the byzantine legal process to get disability benefits. Apparently the right wing thinks they're faking so they not work and drink all day. Even if they could stop trying to self-medicate with alcohol, most wouldn't be able to manage a checkbook even if they could get through the process and there's nowhere for them to go. Your options around here are the crisis line, which is useless, or primary care (the mental hospital). If they don't have health insurance they'll get a T&R (treat and release) and that's how they end up on park benches.
Most states have closed their assisted living centers and state mental hospitals because of cutbacks in federal funding. Where to you think those people go? They usually get lumped in with people with AIDS and criminals. Great atmosphere for recovery. The druggies steal their meds and they're right back to having street lights sending them messages from the mother ship. It varies. Some states are better than others, but overall mental health care in the US, if you don't have health insurance, sucks ass. That doesn't get much attention, but let them leave "In God We Trust" off a dollar coin and people are all up about that. Hypocrites.
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Complicated problem (Score:2)
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I love this one.
A clueless family member forwarded me this meme and the funniest thing about it was that both mottos are on the coins - they are engraved around the edge (just like on some European coins.) There were a few accidentally struck without it, but they are valuable and not really in circulation. Plus there was this bit about the Founding Fathers(tm) coming up wit
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There are well-established standards for the treatment of laboratory animals. Any institution that runs an animal lab is supposed to meet rigorous standards for living space, quality of food, cleanliness, etc., and have a veterinarian on staff (or at least on call) to look after the
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Likewise with livestock producers, insofar as is practical, because every ounce of flesh stressed off your animals is money out of your pocket at the sale ring.
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Re:I'm conflicted (Score:5, Insightful)
Humans are built to cover much ground while using little energy. Bipedal locomotion (walking upright on two feet) means you can search a lot of area and don't use up much food/energy in the process. For a million yars our ancestors were hunters and gatherers that search large areas for food. Humans tend to have an instinctive need to move around and don't like confinement.
We make the mistake of thinking all animals are like humans. Animals that are on the bottom of the food chain are not like us at all.
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Whereas animals at the top of the food chain -- like giant squid -- are virtually identical to us.
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LS
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I find myself in a similar boat - my mother was, among other things, a diagnosed low-functioning paranoid schizophrene, and I've spent a good portion of my life concerned that I'm going to see similar problems manifest themselves in my mental and emotional health. (Thankfully, I don't seem to have any symptoms or behavior sets of the various schizotypical disorders, and I've been assured that at age 32, I'm pretty safe from see
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Squeak! (Score:2)
[translation: "I'm crazy, and so am I!"]
Meow! (Score:2)
pick your reality (Score:5, Interesting)
The standard narrative of schizophrenia that we've all internalized is that it's somehow a weakness of an individual. That can't be true, especially if it can be induced.
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I'm sure they've induced mice to be fat, and being fat is a weakness.
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You don't jus
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The standard narrative of schizophrenia that we've all internalized is that it's somehow a weakness of an individual.
I've never heard this narrative, nor of anyone really advocating it until now. Who would really believe that hearing voices would be a "weakness" (i.e. something that could be changed if the person were "strong")? Maybe you're thinking of eating disorders, or gambling or something like that.
A more common bias against someone with schizophrenia is they're scary, dangerous killers. I don't k
Article Headline (Score:2)
"MIT Engineers" "World's First Schizophrenic Mice"
haah... rabid MIT engineers
Someone need to fix that headline more appropriately.
What white mouse _isn't_ schizophrenic? (Score:5, Interesting)
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"In fact there was only one species on the planet more intelligent than dolphins, and they spent a lot of their time in behavioral research laboratories running round inside wheels and conducting frighteningly elegant and subtle experiments on man." --HHGG
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You may be interested in the following article, Caged Animals Can Go Stir Crazy [davidsuzuki.org].
what have they done since they did this in 2003? (Score:2)
Hopefully it hasn't just been sitting on a shelf for all this time to only just now become "breaking" news.
Worse yet (Score:2)
also here http://www.dvorak.org/blog/?p=12372 [dvorak.org]
Also the Wikipedia entry point out that a realistic study say that the real infection rate is 0.55% of the population. [I guess we are not as crazy a planet as first mentioned]
on t
Schizophrenic mice, you say? (Score:2)
as for symptoms (Score:1)
Alright.... (Score:3, Funny)
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The cheese moved itself.
But it will be back.
Ohhhh yes. It will be back.
I had that problem once... (Score:2)
This is bad. Really bad. (Score:2)
After all, according to this [wikipedia.org], mice are the three-dimensional manifestation of hyper-intelligent pan-dimensional beings.
We're doomed! DOOMED!
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Whether I ag
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This is true. My research group is doing this right now with brain tumors. As soon as (a) we have enough data (which usually involves testing treatments on the condition) and (b) the mouse begins to manifest intractable symptoms of the tumor or resulting mass effect, the mouse is killed quickly and (hopefully) painlessly.
Unfortunately, they also kill the mice after the experiment if treatment is successful. I don't see the need for this except to free up cages, and I am a bit surprised they don't want to
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I really, really hope that you are joking.
Although human models would certainly be more relevant, the ethics here are a total loss. Such a thing would clearly fall into the category of "cruel and unusual punishment," even if we assume that all of the people that are in prison are guilty. Throw into th
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Sadly, often animal models are not appropriate for human diseases. Eg, you break the same gene as in human but the animal does not have any symptoms of the disease.
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