Results of a new study are challenging the previously held notion that schizophrenia manifests due to wiring problems in the prefrontal and temporal lobes only. Instead, it appears that white matter is frayed throughout the brain in those with the disorder. The study was published yesterday in Molecular Psychiatry.
The research, done as part of a collaboration between USC and 29 international institutions, used data from 1,963 people with schizophrenia and 2,359 healthy controls from Australia, Asia, Europe, South Africa and North America. To date, this is the largest big data study on schizophrenia, according to the team.
The researchers used diffusion tensor imaging data, a form of MRI that measures the movement of water molecules in the brain. These types of images allow scientists to study the brain’s normally insulated communication system.
Previous studies have presented conflicting reports of which areas of the brain affect schizophrenia susceptibility. This study found frayed communication cords to be present throughout the brain though the poorly insulated wiring was most evident in the corpus callosum. The corpus callosum is responsible for communication between brain hemispheres in the frontal portion of the corona radiata, which is important for information processing.
"Without this study, future research could have been misdirected," said Neda Jahanshad, co-lead author of the study. "Rather than looking for genes that affect a certain 'stretch of wiring,' scientists will now look for genes that affect the brain's entire communication infrastructure.
Identifying the brain regions that cause schizophrenia is necessary if researchers hope to someday create a treatment that addresses the root of the problem rather than just the symptoms. A next step based on the current study might be to understand what causes these abnormalities in white matter to manifest.
Image: Fiber pathways in the brain are altered in schizophrenia, a mental illness in which patients may experience hallucinations, psychosis and depression. Image courtesy of Paul Thompson, Ph.D., Neda Jahanshad, Ph.D., and Conor Corbin, USC Laboratory of Neuro Imaging, USC Mark and Mary Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute -www.loni.usc.edu