Mental Health on the Subway

I was on the train when a hunched silhouette in the corner was rambling on, incomprehensibly distraught in their mania. people started to put on their headphones; one even decided that it was too noisy and left the cabin.

It's funny how I was reading up on bipolar disorder earlier this morning and it mentioned schizophrenia. I discovered that there is an area of the brain that acts as the reward system for some of the audio processing areas of our brain. This part of the brain is called the Anterior Cingulate Cortex and it is trying to communicate with a specific Brodmann area (audio) of the forebrain.

In the schizophrenic patient this grey brain mass is deteriorated, making it very difficult for the Brodmann area to communicate with the reward system pathways. This ends up resulting in a lot of garbled audio poo-poo on the receiving end of our good friend here on the train.

It really makes me wonder,-- are we really treating the problem with schizophrenic patients here? What exactly is going on here, on the subway in terms of mental health?

I hope this questions sparks discussion, because in this day and age,-- it is heavily warranted.

@jerbearbearbear

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