From Paul Bowden, Nottingham, UK
While the article on functional disorders was enlightening (6 April, p 28), as a scientist I find myself uneasy at the idea that no physical cause can be found. Given that the brain is a physical object, anything that happens in the brain has a physical cause.
It may be that functional symptoms are caused more by “software” than by the brain’s hardware, but that is itself created by the brain’s topology and neurons, and hence by its physical functioning. There may also be a physical cause that isn’t detectable using current imaging and diagnostic techniques. Consider viral or prion damage within cells, or a genetic predisposition to over or underproduce neurotransmitters, perhaps only in certain regions of the brain.
Neurologists of the future may be embarrassed by the whole “functional disorder” label.
