Does anyone know?
I am a former PhD student in behavioral neuroscience and I don’t mean to be flip but the question makes no sense as stated. The brain is “wired” through chemical interactions (neurotransmitters). The brain is a big biological computer and the fundamental method of communication is through chemicals. It can’t be answered as stated.
Your corrective point is taken. I meant wiring in the sense of the integrity and proper operation of the brain’s physical structures.
The answer to your question is “no”.
“Schizophrenia” is a weakly defined phenomenon to begin with, and although theories have been offered over the last century as to what the phenomenon precisely consists of and what causes it to take place, it remains fairly elusive.
At best we can say that the observable behaviors (which are the only basis for diagnosis, by the way) appear to correlate roughly with some differences in brain functioning, most likely on a neurochemical - neurotransmitter level (rather than, say, manifesting at a major structural difference level).
People may or may not be born with a “difference” that predisposes them to exhibiting the behavior “schizophrenia” later.
“Schizophrenia” may or may not be in part a response to situations / environment.
The correlated conditions in the brain may or may not be causal; they may in fact be symptoms of the mental state with which they are correlated.
“Schizophrenia” may or may not be a single phenomenon with a single cause, as opposed to a loose constellation of state of mind/behavior that may have multiple causes.
I’ve been so diagnosed; and 25 years of associating with other folks who have been so diagnosed and comparing notes regarding what the field of psychiatry has done for us has led me to the conclusion that the profession is profoundly ignorant and causes on average quite a bit more misery than it cures.
As far as I know we have very little evidence supporting the notion that some minor details of the mechanical arrangement of the brain have any effect on its function. If one considers all brain function to be result of neural computation of a complex analog neural computer of billions of neurons (a claim I strongly believe personally but is not factual in the scientific sense), it kind of makes sense that brain chunks have descriptive function and not prescriptive function.
While physical damage to the brain will result in disruption of normal neural function, “cross wiring” is a very misleading term. A brain is not collection of wired up blocks like your TV or stereo or the CPU in your computer, but rather a lump of interconnected neural matter that, while not homogenous, does not necessarily imply any sort of prescribed function through its structure.
Well put 
Another aspect of schizophrenia that, in my opinion, does not get sufficient attention of the psychiatric community is the correlation of symptoms to seemingly unrelated conditions. For instance severe bipolar disorder, PTSD and temporary impairment due to use of a psychedelic or deliriant substance. In fact, I have seen people have very bad “trips” as a result of psilocybin consumption combined with negative stress and I have seen people severely affected by acute schizophrenia. I have no doubt in my find that if the former lasted days instead of hours, and new ideas and memories were formed under the influence, it would become indistinguishable from the latter. Unfortunately experiments to verify this are so far medically impossible (and unethical), and the plural of anecdote isn’t data.
While I agree the psychiatric community has a poor understanding of schizophrenia, I disagree with the prior post. I think most psychiatrists do view “psychotic behaviour” as a spectrum that includes drug induced psychosis, psychotic depression, manic depression, schizoaffective disorder and “schizophrenia”.
Whether a piece of brain has prescriptive or descriptive function does depend on what piece of brain you’re talking about. There is likely a fair degree of redundancy, so that minor derangements often don’t affect function… but some areas are more important to functioning well. A stroke does not have to be extensive to cause profound symptoms. It is often hard to notice or diagnose minor derangements in function; which are often subtle even when seen by the people who know you best. Diagnosing someone with minimal early changes of say, Alzheimer’s, is often diffiicult, for example.
Schizophrenia, as seen by the psychology and psychiatry professions, is defined by a range of behaviors and experiences. There has never been a proven biological cause for schizophrenia. There are studies that show it is likely to run in families and MRIs showing brain differences in people with schizophrenia, but these do not necessarily mean a biological origin of the disease. Family behavior patterns and environments could possibly account for the apparent heritibility, and brain differences could be from psychotropic drugs or otherwise caused by the person’s having schizophrenia as opposed to the other way around. Everyone I’ve met who had schizophrenia or similar “psychotic” disorders has had some really stressful environmental factors in their lives. I know it’s anecdotal, but it really seems to me that environment plays a big part in the development of schizophrenia. IMHO.