Theory of brain development places psychiatric disorders on a single spectrum.

The New York Times (11/11, D4, Carey) reports that Bernard Crespi, Ph.D., a biologist at Simon Fraser University in Canada, and Christopher Badcock, Ph.D., a sociologist at the London School of Economics, “have published a sweeping theory of brain development that would change the way mental disorders like autism and schizophrenia are understood.” The Times explains that the researchers “propose that an evolutionary tug of war between genes from the father’s sperm and the mother’s egg can, in effect, tip brain development in one of two ways. A strong bias toward the father pushes a developing brain along the autistic spectrum,” whereas a “bias toward the mother moves the growing brain along what the researchers call the psychotic spectrum.” This means that autism and schizophrenia may “represent opposite ends of a spectrum that includes most, if not all, psychiatric and developmental brain disorders.” The theory may have research implications, but Matthew Belmonte, a neuroscientist at Cornell University, noted, “The reality… is that many of the details of their theory are going to be wrong; and it is, at this point, just a theory.”