Multiple constraint organization in the brain: a theory for schizophrenia

Schizophrenia may be reconceptualized as disturbances in the multiple constraint organization between and within neurological subsystems in the brain. In disorganized schizophrenia the disturbances of multiple constraint organization encompass most if not all brain systems. In reality-distortion schizophrenia, auditory unimodal and their connections with heteromodal networks are primarily affected. Delusions are related to disturbances of constraints among higher transmodal systems that involve conceptual processes of ideas. Poverty symptoms of schizophrenia presumably emerge from disturbances in constraint satisfaction of the networks located at the highest levels of the hierarchy; these are the networks that connect sensation with action. The reconceptualizations proposed in this work could generate testable predictions relevant to brain research in schizophrenia and may prove useful for devising a more etiologically oriented diagnostic system for the disorder.