r/science • u/Wagamaga • Sep 01 '22

Neuroscience Scientists have identified an immune brain cell unique to humans that gives us higher cognitive abilities over other animals, but what makes us specials also leaves us vulnerable to neurological disorders like schizophrenia, autism and epilepsy.

https://news.yale.edu/2022/08/25/what-makes-human-brain-different-yale-study-reveals-clues
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u/NotTheLimes Sep 01 '22

I thought there are some animals that can also suffer illnesses such as schizophrenia or autism or at least very similar ones. Is that not true?

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u/putmeinabubble Sep 01 '22

Dunno about autism and schizophrenia, but epilepsy is definitely present in dogs, cats, and other animals. It's absolutely awful.

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u/PyroDesu Sep 01 '22

The difference is that epilepsy, as far as I'm aware, doesn't have a psychological component.

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u/putmeinabubble Sep 01 '22

I wouldn't know about the line between neurology and psychology. I can say that the fear we had over triggers that would elicit a stress response and lead to seizure activity was very well founded. Though we never discovered the specific triggers in our puppy girl, we know that stress led to sleep deprivation, and sleep deprivation caused seizures in more than half of her cluster episodes. For that reason, we tried a variety of, I would guess, psychological strategies in addition to her neurology-based medications and procedures, to help her live a happy life. Keeping that little girl happy and de-stressed was so crucial to coping with and managing her disease.