With the help of modern brain-scanning technologies, researchers have been able to link some of the symptoms of schizophrenia to disorders in the functioning of specific areas of the brain. What does this give us?
“By studying the anatomy of the brain, we found that patients with schizophrenia are divided into several groups (according to the nature of the disorders), each group has its own symptoms. This allowed us to take a fresh look at this disease. We knew that different patients with schizophrenia often have very different symptoms, and now we understand why, ”says Robert Cloninger, MD, psychoanalyst and geneticist, professor at the University of Washington in St. Louis.
Using the latest brain-scanning technology, scientists examined 36 healthy volunteers and 47 patients with schizophrenia. Schizophrenics have been found to have various abnormalities in the corpus callosum, a plexus of nerve fibers that connects the left and right hemispheres and plays a critical role in signaling in the brain.
Schizophrenia is not one disease, but a whole group of eight genetically distinct disorders.
After examining these disorders, the researchers found that certain features revealed by brain scans corresponded to the specific symptoms of the disease. For example, patients with certain changes in one area of the corpus callosum usually showed strange and disorganized behavior. Disorganized thinking and speech, as well as unemotionality, were more often manifested in violations in another area. “Their own” disorders were associated with hallucinations and delusions.
The same group of researchers in 2014 already managed to establish that schizophrenia is not one disease, but a whole group of eight genetically different disorders, each with its own specific symptoms. Then Robert Cloninger and Igor Tsvir, assistant professor of information technology and artificial intelligence at the University of Granada (Spain), found a pronounced relationship between certain sets of genes and specific clinical symptoms of the disease.
At the moment, all patients diagnosed with schizophrenia are usually prescribed approximately the same treatment.
The study was further confirmation that schizophrenia is actually a whole heterogeneous group of disorders. Scientists believe that in the future it will be important to establish the relationship of specific groups of genes with structural features of the brain and specific symptoms in order to be able to prescribe individually tailored therapy to each patient. At the moment, all patients diagnosed with schizophrenia are usually prescribed approximately the same treatment, regardless of the characteristics of the symptoms.
Researchers have developed a special analysis system for processing genetic data and tomography results. This system is similar to the one by which sites like Netflix (online movie theaters) try to predict which films will be popular with viewers.
“We did not at all try to find patients with certain symptoms first, in order to then look for pathological changes in their brain. We just analyzed the data and found certain patterns. Someday, doctors will be able to prescribe precisely tailored treatment to patients with the help of such examinations and accurate knowledge of the genetics of schizophrenia,” says Igor Tsvir.