Researchers from the University of Granada have connected the symptoms of schizophrenia with the unique anatomical characteristics of the brain using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), revealing that different types of schizophrenia stem from different subgroups of brain structures. The findings could help in the diagnosis and treatment of the mental disease.
The team used diffusion tensor imaging, a type of MRI technique, on 36 health participants and 47 with schizophrenia. The results showed that the schizophrenic group possessed abnormalities in areas of their corpus callosum, a group of neural fibers that connects each of the brain's hemispheres and is essential to allow communication between the two.
Further analysis of the results revealed that specific symptoms of schizophrenia were connected to certain characteristics in the patients' brain scans. For example, patients that exhibited odd, disorganized behavior possessed unique features in a specific part of the corpus callosum, whereas other regions of this structure were connected with hallucinations, as well as disorganized thought and speech.
"The current study provides further evidence that schizophrenia is a heterogeneous group of disorders, as opposed to a single illness, as was previously thought to be case," Igor Zwir, who headed the research, said in a press release.
Zwir and his team made sure to focus on the data gained from the MRI scans first and then work on connecting this data to schizophrenia symptoms, as opposed to the other way around.
"To conduct the research, we did not begin by studying individuals who had certain schizophrenic symptoms in order to determine whether they had the corresponding brain anomalies," he explained. "Instead, we first analyzed the data, and that's how we discovered these patterns. This type of information, combined with data on the genetics of schizophrenia, will someday be of vital importance in helping doctors treat the disorders in a more precise and effective way."
The findings were published in the Oct. 15 issue of NeuroImage.
