Schizophrenia might be among the most intensely studied mental illnesses. However, its causes—and the way those causes manifest in the brain—remain frustratingly elusive. A new study published February 26 in the American Journal of Psychiatry examines physical differences between the brains of people who experience schizophrenia and those who do not.
Wolfgang Omlor, a study co-author and psychiatrist from the University of Zurich in Switzerland, tells Popular Science that “while schizophrenia may have its own mechanisms shaping brain structure and function, these processes remain far from fully understood.”
To identify trends in physical features common to the brains of people with schizophrenia, Omlor and his team combed through data from the global Enhancing Neuroimaging Genetics Through Meta-Analysis (ENIGMA) database covering 6,037 people. They saw two potential features: an increased uniformity of folding patterns in a part of the brain called the right caudal anterior cingulate region, and an increased variability in the thickness of the cerebral cortex.
An immediate question is whether these features could contribute to causing schizophrenia, or whether they’re caused by the condition. Similarly, it’s not clear whether these features are innate, or develop over the course of a person’s life. Omlor explains that because this study is “comparing individuals already diagnosed with schizophrenia to controls,” it can’t address the question of causation.
As far as whether these features are something with which a person is born, or whether they develop over the course of life, he says, “It’s likely a combination of both. Some features may be present from early development, while
