JAMA Sub-Journal: Brain Fold Tells You About Your Risk of Schizophrenia!

People with schizophrenia often develop symptoms such as anxiety, depression, or sleep problems before the onset of illness

Credit: Alice C.

According to an article published April 25 in the journal JAMA Psychiatry titled "Disorganized Gyrification Network Properties During the Transition to Psychosis," this method is based on MRI scans of the brain by studying the amount of folding in different brain regions correlations between different brain areas, which can reflect the strength

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The surface of the human brain is particularly wrinkled

Lead researcher and one of the paper's authors, Palaniyappan, and his colleagues have previously studied patients with schizophrenia and autism and found local differences in folding patterns: When they compared people with these conditions to the general population, they found that the surface of one brain region was smoother and the surface of another area was wrinkled

In previous studies, researchers examined the relationships between all brain regions and their folding patterns

In the new study, the team collected MRI brain scans

They then followed the participants for four years and found that 16 of the high-risk groups developed schizophrenia

Looking back at brain scans, the researchers found that in 80 percent of the cases, the relationship between folding patterns correctly identified who developed schizophrenia and who did not

It is important to note that these findings need to be further confirmed in future studies before they can be used in the clinic

"The purpose of this study is to identify clues in brain structures that will help clinicians better identify and treat people with schizophrenia before they experience full-blown schizophrenia, drop out of school, or lose their jobs