Schizophrenia - new skill learning benefits

The detrimental effects of schizophrenia are shown on the previous pages. This can be ameliorated by learning new skills or practising known skills (1;2) . Learning alters brain structure by new connections being made and it is well documented that expertise alters and improves brain connections.

Expert chess players’ brain connections differ from the rest of the population (3) . It was found that functional connectivity between basal ganglia, thalamus, hippocampus was increased expert chess players and also in several parietal and temporal areas, which suggested the influence of cognitive expertise on intrinsic connectivity networks associated with learning and memory (3) . Kim et al. (2010) (4) shows that working memory is reduced in schizophrenics compared with controls.

Musicians have been shown to have improved language learning due to increased connectivity in parts of the brain (5) . Also lifelong music training may lead to increased cognitive performance in old age (6) . Increased neural plasticity has also been found in musicians (5;7) .

Furthermore, learning and motor skills acquired by for instance; taxi drivers (8-11) , dancers (12;13), athletes of different kinds (14) , golfers (15) and physical activity in aging adults (16) result in largely beneficial changes to the brain (e.g. increased grey matter) and functional connectivity. Learning and cognitive a social skill training is used in schizophrenic patients to improve their symptoms (1).

It is hypothesised that learned behaviour by songbirds alters neural networks by epigenetic modification (besides other factors) to produce of birdsong (a model of human speech production) (17).

 

References

1. Granholm E, Holden J, Link PC, et al. Randomized clinical trial of cognitive behavioral social skills training for schizophrenia: improvement in functioning and experiential negative symptoms. Journal of consulting and clinical psychology 2014;82(6):1173-85. doi: 10.1037/a0037098 [published Online First: 2014/06/10]

2. Svatkova A, Mandl RC, Scheewe TW, et al. Physical Exercise Keeps the Brain Connected: Biking Increases White Matter Integrity in Patients With Schizophrenia and Healthy Controls. Schizophr Bull 2015;41(4):869-78. doi: 10.1093/schbul/sbv033 [published Online First: 2015/04/02]

3. Duan X, Long Z, Chen H, et al. Functional organization of intrinsic connectivity networks in Chinese-chess experts. Brain Research 2014;1558:33-43. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.brainres.2014.02.033

4. Kim J, Matthews NL, Park S. An Event-Related fMRI Study of Phonological Verbal Working Memory in Schizophrenia. PLoS ONE 2010;5(8):e12068. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0012068

5. Dittinger E, Valizadeh SA, Jancke L, et al. Increased functional connectivity in the ventral and dorsal streams during retrieval of novel words in professional musicians. Human brain mapping 2017 doi: 10.1002/hbm.23877 [published Online First: 2017/11/07]

6. Grassi M, Meneghetti C, Toffalini E, et al. Auditory and cognitive performance in elderly musicians and nonmusicians. PLoS ONE 2017;12(11):e0187881. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0187881

7. Bidelman GM. Musicians have enhanced audiovisual multisensory binding: experience-dependent effects in the double-flash illusion. Experimental Brain Research 2016;234(10):3037-47. doi: 10.1007/s00221-016-4705-6

8. Shen H, Li Z, Qin J, et al. Changes in functional connectivity dynamics associated with vigilance network in taxi drivers. Neuroimage 2016;124(Pt A):367-78. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2015.09.010 [published Online First: 2015/09/13]

9. Wang L, Liu Q, Shen H, et al. Large-scale functional brain network changes in taxi drivers: evidence from resting-state fMRI. Human brain mapping 2015;36(3):862-71. doi: 10.1002/hbm.22670 [published Online First: 2014/10/24]

10. Maguire EA, Woollett K, Spiers HJ. London taxi drivers and bus drivers: a structural MRI and neuropsychological analysis. Hippocampus 2006;16(12):1091-101. doi: 10.1002/hipo.20233 [published Online First: 2006/10/07]

11. Maguire EA, Gadian DG, Johnsrude IS, et al. Navigation-related structural change in the hippocampi of taxi drivers. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2000;97(8):4398-403. doi: 10.1073/pnas.070039597 [published Online First: 2000/03/15]

12. Karpati FJ, Giacosa C, Foster NE, et al. Dance and the brain: a review. Ann N Y Acad Sci 2015;1337:140-6. doi: 10.1111/nyas.12632 [published Online First: 2015/03/17]

13. Hanggi J, Koeneke S, Bezzola L, et al. Structural neuroplasticity in the sensorimotor network of professional female ballet dancers. Human brain mapping 2010;31(8):1196-206. doi: 10.1002/hbm.20928 [published Online First: 2009/12/22]

14. Schlaffke L, Lissek S, Lenz M, et al. Sports and brain morphology - a voxel-based morphometry study with endurance athletes and martial artists. Neuroscience 2014;259:35-42. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2013.11.046 [published Online First: 2013/12/03]

15. Kim JH, Han JK, Kim BN, et al. Brain networks governing the golf swing in professional golfers. J Sports Sci 2015;33(19):1980-7. doi: 10.1080/02640414.2015.1022570 [published Online First: 2015/03/13]

16. Erickson KI, Leckie RL, Weinstein AM. Physical activity, fitness, and gray matter volume. Neurobiology of aging 2014;35 Suppl 2:S20-8. doi: 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2014.03.034 [published Online First: 2014/06/24]

17. Whitney O, Pfenning AR, Howard JT, et al. Core and region-enriched networks of behaviorally regulated genes and the singing genome. Science 2014;346(6215) doi: 10.1126/science.1256780