Cognitive maps and schizophrenia

TL;DR

This paper explores how abnormalities in the formation and maintenance of cognitive maps in the brain may underlie various symptoms of schizophrenia, linking neural circuit issues and environmental factors.

Contribution

It proposes a novel hypothesis that schizophrenia symptoms result from disruptions in structured neural representations, integrating neurophysiological and environmental influences.

Findings

Neurophysiological perturbations can cause attractor instability.

Impaired representational capacity relates to symptom severity.

Environmental stressors influence representation learning.

Abstract

Structured internal representations (cognitive maps) shape cognition, from imagining the future and counterfactual past, to transferring knowledge to new settings. Our understanding of how such representations are formed and maintained in biological and artificial neural networks has grown enormously. The cognitive mapping hypothesis of schizophrenia extends this enquiry to psychiatry, proposing that diverse symptoms - from delusions to conceptual disorganisation - stem from abnormalities in how the brain forms structured representations. These abnormalities may arise from a confluence of neurophysiological perturbations (excitation-inhibition imbalance, resulting in attractor instability and impaired representational capacity), and/or environmental factors such as early life psychosocial stressors (which impinge on representation learning). This proposal thus links knowledge of neural circuit abnormalities, environmental risk factors, and symptoms.