Czech Neuroontogenetical Research and the Neurodevelopmental Concept ofSome Psychiatric Disorders

Overview

The importance and originality of Czech neuroontogenetical research as well as data of Czechdevelopmental physiology from early fi fties, sixties (and later) for up today of so much pointedneurodevelopmental concept of several psychiatric disorders is shortly displayed. In experimentsthe physiological maturation was artifi cially retarded using a large variety of standard technics andmethods (short lasting or repeated starvation, malnutrition, premature weaning, hypoxia, anoxia,ischemia, surgical intervention, development of individuals in large or small communities (withvarious level of nutrition and maternal care etc), the effect of rich or poor environmental fi eld etc).Every retardation of the maturation clearly affected not only different neurological parameters,but also brain complex functions (memory, learning, differentiation, exploratory activities) aswell as maternal and other kinds of social behavior. For the fi rst time the „transfer“ of such worseproperties from mothers to their descendants, the increased motor activity as a consequence ofexcitation-inhibition disbalance, the worse perception etc were described. The functional failureswere systematically completed by morphological and biochemical studies (retarded migration,synaptogenesis, dendrifi cation, lower content of DNA, RNA, proteins, amino acids, phospholipids,lower enzymatic activities ect). Large number of studies dealt with the possible importance ofpolyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3) in the maturation process and with the plasticity of unmaturedbrain tissue.

Key words:
risk newborns, brain development, psychiatric disorders.