New research suggests that a simple Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scan can predict whether or not someone will develop schizophrenia.
British researchers found that a new scanning method that takes note of the wiring of the brain could provide help determine a person's risk of schizophrenia. This is helpful, as it has been reported that symptoms of schizophrenia are partly explained by disordered connectivity in the brain, Psychiatry Advisor reported.
Schizophrenia is a mental disorder which causes hallucinations, delusions and disordered thought. Schizophrenic disorders affect around 26 million people worldwide.
"We already know that the brains of people with schizophrenia are wired differently and are less efficient than healthy people," Professor Derek Jones, director of Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Centre (CUBRIC), said in a statement. "However, until now, no study has tried to use this information to look at healthy individuals with some of the same symptoms but without actually having the condition."
For the study, they used MRI on more than more than 200 people to identify how the brains of young people, who have some of the symptoms of schizophrenia, are wired differently, according to Futurity. They scanned 123 people who have vulnerability to psychosis, and 125 people without vulnerability and compared the differences in the wiring of their brains.
They found that these abnormalities affected some central information hubs of the brain.
Researchers hope their findings, which are detailed in the journal Human Brain Mapping, could provide "valuable insight into how the wiring of the brain gives rise to symptoms of schizophrenia, and crucially, offer a new tool for predicting future illness."
