Fig. 2: Network implicated in psychotic symptoms and schizophrenia.
From: Dopamine, psychosis and schizophrenia: the widening gap between basic and clinical neuroscience
Dysfunction in a variety of brain regions can elicit psychotic symptoms. A primary circuit involved in psychosis includes the thalamus and prefrontal cortex (yellow) feeding into the associative striatum. Alterations in the thalamus and prefrontal cortex are involved in hallucinations and also insight for delusional symptoms. Expression of psychotic symptoms in most cases requires increased activity in the associative striatum and specifically excessive D2 receptor stimulation (red). Other limbic regions such as the hippocampus and amygdala (green) can feed into this circuit contributing to altered sensory perception and emotional context
