Section summary and perspectives: Translational medicine in neurology

The fact that risk genes for schizophrenia are salient for brain development or that fetal brain insults mimic the cortical and behavioral pathology of schizophrenia has led to a certain degree of pessimism that these deficits could be ameliorated in the mature brain. Animal models of disorders like schizophrenia that are manifest primarily by cognitive symptoms such as disorganized thinking and hallucinations are based on rather tenuous behavioral inferences such as hyperactivity and stereotypic behavior and are equivalent to psychosis because it is reduced by antipsychotic drugs. Although it has long been known that schizophrenia is associated with loss of cortical volume and increased size of the lateral ventricles, the pathology of the mood disorders was thought to be primarily functional. Biogenic amine neurotransmitters were the major focus of translational research, given their role in mediating the therapeutic effects of antipsychotic and antidepressant medications.