Evolutionary aspects of Schizophrenia

[trehinp]

Here is a fascinating problem, in this case applied to schizophrenia, but which could be applied to many other medical condition with a genetic component : how comes some of these condition "survive" the evolutionary process?

An article has just been published in September 2004 addressing this subject :

Schizophrenia as one extreme of a sexually selected fitness indicator, Andrew Shanera, Geoffrey Millerb, Jim Mintza, Schizophrenia Research 70 (2004) 101– 109

The text is available on the internet for people who subscrobe the service :
Click here for more

A similar article published earlier, in 1997, <<Antonio Preti and Paola Miotto “Creativity, Evolution and Mental Illnesses”, University of Cagliari, Sardegna, Italy>>, approached this problem from a different angle that of creativity often linked to people with mental illnesses which could have induced a certain protection for these individuals fom the "tribe".

I have posted this discussion on the "Parietal and Mobiliary Art" Board, under the topic "Radical or progressive evolution", as it pertains more to that topic, yet it has evolutionary biology aspects too...

Paul

[skwirl42]

I have a couple of critiques of the idea that schizophrenia creates a barrier to successful reproduction.

The first is that schizophrenia does not necessarily overtly display itself until a person has been capable of reproduction for some time. I have no sources on this, unfortunately I don't know any psychiatrists to get statistics from.

The second is that, for the most part, when people do not understand how something works, or are uncertain, the confident declaration by someone else that the object (or concept) works in a particular way, they accept it. People suffering with schizophrenia declare things as if they believe them, and act as such as well. If a person believes they have received knowledge from another, they may respect them more.

Unlikely to be proven as it is, as the evidence has long since decomposed, my theory is that most religions, with a significant component being the discussion of mysterious and mystical forces, were originally the delusions of a schizophrenic. This is also unlikely to catch on as a generally accepted theory, I imagine, since it's not likely to be popular with most. But objectively, it makes sense.

Since the large majority of human populations are not the ones who come up with the "answers," any answer given early enough in that population's culture can be carried along indefinitely, even when better answers appear.

I'm hoping this post doesn't start a flame war, I'm not trying to debate the merits of religion, simply the mechanism by which it appeared.

James

[trehinp]

Hi James,

On the first part of your post, it is probably the abstract that wasn't precise enough. In fact in the full paper the author argues that some of the traits present in schizophrenia may be quite successful at winning partners.

He expands upon the fact that Schizophrenia is a polygenic condition and that some of the genes do carry some particularly valuable for courtship. It is only when so many of these genes come together in a same individual that difficulties really happen : "Schizophrenia is the unattractive extreme of some type of sexually selected fitness indicators".

With regard the second part of your post, I think that you have some valid points there.

Indeed your theory "that most religions, with a significant component being the discussion of mysterious and mystical forces, were originally the delusions of a schizophrenic." was also expressed by John Bradshaw in "Human Evolution: A Neuropsychological Perspective", written by John L. Bradshaw, Psychology Press LTD. 1997.

Chapter 9 : Intelligence, Social Intelligence, consciousness and self consciousness,
Paragraph 2 : The theory of Machiavellian Intelligence (towards the end) :

<< It is possible that the religious experiences of mystical people and of believers may be near the mode of mental functioning of schizophrenic people. It equally possible that the belief in religion and in the supra natural wouldn't be possible without the "germ" of schizophrenia which could be present in everyone of us.>>
(Translated from the French version of the book that I have...)
 
This is an important discussion, I think, and should be far from starting a flame war.

My main domain of interest being autism, I have an hypothesis linking religious rituals to the types of repetitive behaviours frequent in autism, even though not part of the diagnostic criteria. These are called stereotypies : Rocking, hand flapping, rotating, visual rhythmic excitation, etc. are rather common. Note that these induce endorphin production in non autistic people with a southing effect.  Whirling Dervishes rotations, for example, do produce the same effects.

I am inclined to think that it is likely that the “religious authority” (Shaman, Sorcerer, Priest) may have not been themselves people with autism or with schizophrenia, but would have had on the contrary excellent social skills and organisational capabilities. They could have interpreted some of the strange behaviours of these different people as signs of connexion with a deity.

But that is mainly speculation, and probably bound to remain such…

Paul

[skwirl42]

I'm not subscribed to the journal, so all I had to go by was the abstract.

I'll have to check out Bradshaw's book. I'm still building my knowledge base of anthropology-related literature, since this is my first serious foray into the topic, academically.

As for the discussion of the origin of religion, and how it might be a flame war, in North America, particularly certain large, powerful countries, anything that calls religion into question (value, validity of claims, etc) usually gets flamed. Even in academic circles.

As for who the leaders would have been, I have to agree. Someone with a severe psychological handicap is not likely to be effective in maintaining a power structure. But someone who can is certainly capable of taking advantage of that person to further their quest for dominance.

This may all be speculation, but it's one of my research interests. I plan to do simulation studies in this, when time permits. Right now I'm working on entering the MA in Anthropology program at McGill, here in Montreal, and my MA thesis is likely to revolve around simulations related to the overkill hypothesis and its validity in an american context. The prof who's likely to be my adviser says it may be of larger scope than an MA is fit for. Remains to be seen, I've been working as a software developer professionally for 3 years now, and I am one of the fastest producing developers in the area. I guess it's a question of the research taking time.

[trehinp]

I understand the limits with accessing scientific articles. I have the same problem... Contact me directly via e-mail, I will give you some more info on that article.

Concerning the "religious" discussion, I think it would be interesting. However, I don't know if the Forum owner and the moderators think that it is manageable. I would tend to believe it is, given the high level of courtesy that this forum has demonstrated.
In any case it should be posted on another discussion topic.

Paul