Signal Origin Failure: A TRN-Based Mechanistic Account of Schizophrenia

This paper proposes that schizophrenia is a signal labeling failure rather than a disease of broken reasoning or invented content. When the corollary discharge relay through the mediodorsal thalamus fails, self-generated signals arrive at TRN gate competition without their origin label and win gate access as if externally sourced. The hallucination is real signal constituted as external reality by a gate functioning exactly as designed. The delusion is rational inference from systematically corrupted inputs. The framework explains positive symptoms, negative symptoms, and the partial efficacy of D2 blockade within a single mechanistic account, and distinguishes this condition from other TRN-based disorders by locating the failure in the labeling pathway rather than the gate itself.