I have been a mental health consumer for over a decade. We now call ourselves SURVIVORS. Because having survived the hospitalizations, medications, restraints, electroconvulsive therapy or ECT as it is fondly called.
These are the taboo subjects that I will be getting into. Also I will be going into the brain processes that have been learned through MRI and EEG's. Also through postmortem brain disection.
The Orbitofrontal Cortex is the part of the frontal lobe that lies superior to the orbit of the eyes. This area plays an important role in emotional behavior. The orbitofrontal cortex receives direct imput from the thalamus, temporal cortex, ventral tegmental area, olfactory system, and the amygdala.
Its outputs go to several brain regions, including the cingulate cortex, lateral hypothalamus, and the amygdala. Finally, it communicates with other regions of the frontal cortex. Thus its imputs provide it with the information about what is happening in our environment and its outputs permit it to affect a variety of behaviors and physiological responses, including emotional responses organized by the amygdala.
In a postmortem brain study in bipolar brains in the orbitofrontal cortex, has found statistical information on neuronal size reduction in BP brain in layer 1 and 5. This reduction was not found in schizophrenia brains and in Unipolar brians only in the layer 3. These findings provide preliminary evidence that neuronal size reduction in the orbitofronal cortex is a component of the pathology of the Bipolar brain.
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