A new study has just linked features of the brain's anatomy to behavioral symptoms of schizophrenia. This sheds light as to why distinct subgroups of patients with the disease suffer different psychological issues, and that the brain dictates it.
Researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis used advanced brain imaging, and they were able to look at the brain's anatomy and correlated its features with certain symptoms observed in people with schizophrenia.
"This gives us a new way of thinking about the disease," says senior investigator C. Robert Cloninger, M.D., Ph.D. in a press release. "We know that not all patients with schizophrenia have the same issues, and this helps us understand why."
A total of 83 volunteers participated in the study - 36 of which are healthy and 47 people with schizophrenia. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and a technique called diffusion tensor imaging were used to scan the brains of the subjects. There they found patients with such disorder to have various abnormalities in some parts of the corpus callosum - a region that connects the left and right hemispheres of the brain. These abnormalities were noted to match with specific symptoms - that is, patients with specific features in the brain typically displayed strange behaviors. Other parts are associated with thinking and speech, while others may indicate delusions and hallucinations.
With all these findings, it can be said that schizophrenia is not just a single disorder, but a combination of those kinds.
Researchers consider their study as the one that opens newer possibilities in searching for best treatments to cure schizophrenia. However, they suggest that future research must also focus on the gene networks that may have contributed to specific features of the brain which are currently linked to these identified symptoms.
"This kind of granular information, combined with data about the genetics of schizophrenia, one day will help physicians treat the disorder in a more precise way," co-researcher Igor Zwir was quoted saying by ScienceDaily.
The study appears in the journal NeuroImage.