Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Bipolar shifts as disorders of the bi-hemispheric integration of language: implications for the genetic origins of the psychotic continuum

  • Chapter
Bipolar Disorders

Conclusions

The categorical classification that is implicit in the original Kraepelinian dichotomy of schizophrenic and affective psychoses has obscured the continuity of the basic phenomena across conventional diagnoses and with variation in the population as a whole. Kraepelin’s 1920 modification and its implications for developmental and evolutionary theories of the origins of psychosis deserve particular attention. They are consistent with aspects of Kretschmer’s formulation and with what is now known about the epidemiology of the psychoses - that these are phenomena that are intrinsic to human populations. They reflect on the genetic origins of Homo sapiens and the cerebral organization of the function that characterizes the species-language. The generally later onset of affective psychoses and the association of affective symptoms with functions associated with the non-dominant hemisphere provide a lead to the role of affect and non-dominant hemi-sphere function in the organization of language. Sex differences in the spectrum of psychosis and in its correlate are consistent with the hypothesis that a determinant of cerebral asymmetry is located within the Xq21.3/Yp region of homology that was generated by a translocation that occurred after the separation of the chimpanzee and hominid lineages. It is suggested that the critical species-specific variation is subject to epigenetic modification.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 129.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  • Anderson JM. The Grammar of Case: Towards a Localistic Theory. London: Cambridge University Press; 1971.

    Google Scholar 

  • Angst J, Frey R, Lohmeyer B, Zerbin-Rudin E. Bipolar manic-depressive psychoses: results of a genetic investigation. Hum Genet. 1980;55:237–54.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Annett M. A Single Gene Explanation of Right and Left Handedness and Brainedness. Coventry: Lanchester Polytechnic; 1978.

    Google Scholar 

  • Annett M. Left, Right, Hand and Brain: The Right Shift Theory. London: Lawrence Erlbaum; 1985.

    Google Scholar 

  • Annett M. Handedness as a continuous variable with dextral shift: sex, generation and family handedness in subgroups of left and righthanders. Behav Genet. 1994;24:51–63.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Astrachan BM, Harrow M, Adler D, Brauer L, Schwartz A, Schwartz C. A checklist for the diagnosis of schizophrenia. Br J Psychiatry. 1972;121:529–39.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Bear DM, Schiff D, Saver J, Greenberg M, Freeman R. Quantitative analysis of cerebral asymmetry; fronto-occipital correlation, sexual dimorphism and association with handedness. Arch Neurol. 1986;43,598–603.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Bebbington P, Ramana R. The epidemiology of bipolar affective disorder. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatric Epidem. 1995;30:279–92.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Bickerton D. Language and Human Behavior. Seattle: University of Washington; 1995.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bloom P, Peterson MA, Nadel L, Garrett MF. Language and Space. Cambridge, MA: MIT; 1996.

    Google Scholar 

  • Buehler K. Sprachtheorie. Translated (1990) by D.W. Goodwin as Theory of Language: The Representational Function of Language. Amsterdam: J Benjamins; 1934.

    Google Scholar 

  • Buxhoeveden D, Casanova M. Comparative lateralizarion patterns in the language area of normal human, chimpanzee, and rhesus monkey brain. Laterality. 1999 (In press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Bybee J, Perkins R, Pagliuca W. The Evolution of Grammar: Tense, Aspect and Modality in the Languages of the World. Chicago: Chicago University Press; 1994.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chomsky N Knowledge of Language: its Nature, Origin and Use. New York: Praeger; 1985.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cook ND. The Brain Code: Mechanisms for Information Transfer and the Role of the Corpus Callosum. London: Methuen; 1986.

    Google Scholar 

  • Crow TJ. Temporal lobe asymmetries as the key to the etiology of schizophrenia. Schiz Bull. 1990;16:433–43.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Crow TJ. Sexual selection, Machiavellian intelligence and the origins of psychosis. Lancet. 1993;342:594–8.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Crow TJ. Con: the demise of the Kraepelinian binary system as a prelude to genetic advance. In: Gershon ES, Cloninger CR, editors. Genetic Approaches to Mental Disorders. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Press; 1994a:163–92.

    Google Scholar 

  • Crow TJ. The case for an X-Y homologous determinant of cerebral asymmetry. Cytogenet Cell Genet. 1994b;67:393–4.

    Google Scholar 

  • Crow TJ. Psychotic continuum or disease entities? The critical impact of nosology on the problem of aetiology. In: Marneros AT, Andreasen NC, Tsuang MT, editors. Psychotic Continuum. Berlin: Springer-Verlag; 1995:151–63.

    Google Scholar 

  • Crow TJ. Schizophrenia as failure of hemispheric dominance for language. Trends Neurosci. 1997;20:339–43.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Crow TJ. From Kraepelin to Kretschmer leavened by K. Schneider: the transition from categories of psychosis to dimensions of variation intrinsic to Homo sapiens. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1998a;55:502–4.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Crow TJ. Nuclear schizophrenic symptoms as a window on the relationship between thought and speech. Brit J Psychiatry. 1998b;173:103–9.

    Google Scholar 

  • Crow TJ. Sexual selection, timing and the descent of Man: a genetic theory of the evolution of language. Curr Psychol Cogn. 1998c;17:1079–1114.

    Google Scholar 

  • Crow TJ. Why cerebral asymmetry is the key to the origin of Homo sapiens: how to find the gene or eliminate the theory. Curr Psychol Cogn. 1998d;17:1237–77.

    Google Scholar 

  • Crow TJ. Commentary on Klaening: twin studies of psychosis and the genetics of cerebral asymmetry. Br J Psychiatry. 1999;175:399–401.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Crow TJ, Crow TJ, DeLisi LE, Johnstone EC. In reply... a locus closer to the telomere? BrJ Psychiatry. 1990;156:416–20.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Crow TJ, Done DJ, Sacker A. Childhood precursors of psychosis as clues to its evolutionary origins. Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Neurosci. 1995;245:61–9.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Crow TJ, Done DJ, Sacker A. Cerebral lateralization is delayed in children who later develop schizophrenia. Schiz Res. 1996;22:181–5.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Crow LR, Done DJ, Leask SJ. Relative hand skill predicts academic ability: global deficits at the point of hemispheric indecision. Neuropsychologia. 1998;36: 1275–82.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Eaton WW, Mortenson PB, Herrman H et al. Long-term course of hospitalisation for schizophrenia: I. Risk for hospitalisation. Schiz Bull. 1992;18:217–28.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Endicott J, Nee J, Fleiss J, Cohen J, Williams JBW, Robert S. Diagnostic criteria for schizophrenia: reliabilities and agreement between systems. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1982;39:884–9.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Goodwin FK, Jamison KR. Manic-Depressive Illness. New York: Oxford University Press; 1990.

    Google Scholar 

  • Huxley J, Mayr E, Osmond H, Hoffer A. Schizophrenia as a genetic morphism. Nature. 1964;204:220–1.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Jablensky A, Sartorius N, Ernberg G et al. Schizophrenia: manifestations, incidence and course in different cultures. A World Health Organization Ten Country Study. Psychol Med Suppl. 1992;20:1–97.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Jegalian K, Page DC. A proposed mechanism by which genes common to mammalian X and Y chromosomes evolve to become X inactivated. Nature. 1998;394:776–80.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kendler KS, Karkowski LM, Walsh D. The structure of psychosis: latent class analysis of probands from the Roscommon Family Study. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1998; 55:492–9.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kendler KS, Walsh D. The structure of psychosis: syndromes and dimensions. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1998;55:508–9.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kraepelin E. Die Erscheinungsformen des Irreseins. Zeit Gesam Neurol Psychiatrie. 1920;62:1–29 (translated by H Marshall as: Patterns of mental disorder. In: Hirsch SR, Shepherd M, editors. Themes and Variations in European Psychiatry. Bristol: Wright; 1974:7–30).

    Google Scholar 

  • Kretschmer E. Physique and Character. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner; 1925.

    Google Scholar 

  • Leff JP, Fischer M, Bertelsen A. A cross-national epidemiological study of mania. Br J Psychiatry. 1976;129:428–42.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Marchant LF, McGrew WC. Laterality of limb function in wild chimpanzees of Gombe National Park: comprehensive study of spontaneous activities. J Hum Evol. 1996;30:427–43.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Marneros A, Rohde A, Deister A. Psychotic continuum under longitudinal considerations. In: Marneros A, Andreasen NC, Tsuang MT, editors. Psychotic Continuum. Berlin: Springer-Verlag; 1995:17–30.

    Google Scholar 

  • McManus IC. Handedness, language dominance and aphasia: a genetic model. Psychol Med Monogr Suppl. 1985;8:1–40.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • McManus IC. The inheritance of left-handedness. In: Bock QR, Marsh J, editors. Biological Asymmetry and Handedness (CIBA Foundation Symposium 162). Chichester: Wiley; 1991:251–81.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mumm S, Molini B, Terrell J, Srivastava A, Schlessinger D. Evolutionary features of the 4Mb Xq21.3 XY homology region revealed by a map at 60-kb resolution. Genome Res. 1997;7:307–14.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Netley CT. Sex chromosome aneuploidy and cognitive development. Cahier Psychol Cogn/Curr Psychol Cogn. 1998;17:1190–7.

    Google Scholar 

  • Netley CT, Rovet J. Atypical hemispheric lateralization in Turner syndrome subjects. Cortex. 1982;18:377–84.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Paivio A. Dual coding theory: retrospect and current status. Can J Psychol. 1991;45:255–87.

    Google Scholar 

  • Penrose LS. Survey of cases of familial mental illness. Eur Arch Psychiatry Neurol Sci. 1991;240:315–24.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Rice J, Reich T, Andreasen NC et al. Sex-related differences in depression: familial evidence. J Affect Disord. 1984;71:199–210.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rice J, Reich T, Andreasen N et al. The familial transmission of bipolar illness. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1987;44:441–7.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Robins LN, Regier DA. Psychiatric Disorders in America: the Epidemologic Catchment Area Study. New York: Free Press; 1991.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rosenthal D. Familial concordance by sex with respect to schizophrenia. Psychol Bull. 1962;59:401–21.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Sapir E. Language: An Introduction to the Study of Speech. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovic; 1997.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sargent CA, Briggs H, Chalmers IJ, Lambson B, Walker E, Affara, NA. The sequence organization of Yp/proximal Xq homologous regions of the human sex chromosomes is highly conserved. Genomics. 1996;32:200–9.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Saussure de F. Course in General Linguistics (translated by R Harris 1983 and published by Open Court, Illinois). Payot, Paris; 1916.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schwartz A, Chan DC, Brown LG et al. Reconstructing hominid Y evolution: X-homologous block, created by X-Y transposition, was disrupted by Yp inversion through Line-Line recombination. Hum Mol Genet. 1998;7:1–11.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Skuse DH, James RS, Bishop DVM et al. Evidence from Turner’s syndrome of an imprinted X-linked locus affecting cognitive function. Nature. 1997;387:705–8.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Stringer C, McKie R. African Exodus: the Origins of Modern Humanity. London: Cape; 1996.

    Google Scholar 

  • Taylor MA, Abrams R. The prevalence of schizophrenia: a reassessment using modern diagnostic criteria. Am J Psychiatry. 1978;135:945–8.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Weissman MM, Bland RC, Canino GJ et al. Cross-national epidemiology of major depression and biopolar disorder. J Am Med Assoc. 1996;276:293–9.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Winokur G, Crowe RR. Bipolar illness: the sex-polarity effect in affectively ill family members. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1983;40:57–8.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Winokur G, Clayton PJ, Reich T. Manic-depressive Illness. St Louis: Mosby; 1980.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors
  1. Timothy J. Crow
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Halle, Germany

    Andreas Marneros

  2. University Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland

    Jules Angst

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2000 Kluwer Academic Publishers

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Crow, T.J. (2000). Bipolar shifts as disorders of the bi-hemispheric integration of language: implications for the genetic origins of the psychotic continuum. In: Marneros, A., Angst, J. (eds) Bipolar Disorders. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/0-306-47521-9_16

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/0-306-47521-9_16

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-0-7923-6588-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-0-306-47521-4

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation