ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to outline a unified approach to several unsolved problems of behavioral regulation, mainly related to the puzzle of schizophrenia. The income-Choice approach (ICA), proposed originally in the 1970s, has recently been summarized in a book (Rosenstein, 1991). One of the main problems to which this approach has been applied is modeling behavior disturbances.
Biological income 2 is a basic variable in the control of biological systems hypothesized by the author. This idea is modeled after the notion of money in economics with its all-penetrating role in regulation of market activities (including financial market and market of information) by price of money variations (inflation-deflation mechanism). Biological income is suggested to play a similar role in biological control and choice of behavior on different levels of biological organization. The income can be presented in many forms, accumulated, and spent on all kinds of activities of the brain and organism. The goal of the model is to maximize the income function in the course of the model’s lifetime. In Rosenstein (1991), the income is defined by assumption on intensities of streams of impulses directed to the reward system. In this chapter, besides this dynamic form of representation of “money” in the model, we discuss dopamine (and some other substances) as candidates to represent income in a form stable enough to be accumulated and distributed among brain subnetworks.
Specifically, the ICA is applied to modeling the following problems (see Table 19.1):
398The causes of catecholamine distribution change in the schizophrenic brain
The role of dopamine in information processing
The fact that in schizophrenics, observations prevail over expectations
The anhedonia hypothesis of neuroleptic action
Explanation of the nature of stereotypic behavior in comparison with adjunctive-type behavior
The origin of the so-called “positive” and “negative” symptoms in schizophrenia
Summary of Basic Topics in This Chapter. https://www.niso.org/standards/z39-96/ns/oasis-exchange/table">No.
Problem
Question
Answer
1
Catecholamine distribution
What causes it?
CDC phenomena in the schizophrenic brain can be caused by augmented streams of impulses (ASI) directed to the reward system, in agreement with our model (Rosenstein, 1991, 1994; Vaisbord & Rosenstein, 1968a, 1968b).
2
Positive symptoms in schizophrenia
Why are they produced by the schizophrenic?
Positive symptoms can cause increase of income or prevent decrease of income when ASI reduce the value of external sources of income. This is why schizophrenics produce these symptoms when the brain’s inner market needs them.
3
A main difference between the psychology of normal and schizophrenic subjects is that in schizophrenia “observations prevail over expectations.”
Why is this property associated with schizophrenia?
“Observations prevail over expectations” can be seen be seen as a metaphorical description of a theorem proven earlier (Glazunov et al., 1971; Rosenstein, 1991), in which this properly (called “flat mind effect”) is obtained from our model.
4
Anhedonia hypothesis (AH)
Can it be supported by the income-choice approach (ICA)?
Yes. It seems that AH should be raised to the rank of “theory of anhedonia” because it was presented as a theory of the phenomena independent of the experimental results from which AH was deduced.
5
Adjunctive behavior (AB)
What is the nature of AB? Why does it occur?
AB is a subset of the set of behaviors whose common property is to be conferred directly with the regulation of the reward system. This idea can be proven by experiments with reward system activity registration at a lime when the animal is producing adjunctive behavior.
