Are you at risk for schizophrenia? The pattern of brain activity may have an answer



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BOSTON: Scientists have identified a pattern of brain activity that can predict the development of schizophrenia, a breakthrough that could be used earlier to diagnose the disorder.

Schizophrenia, a brain disorder that produces hallucinations, delusions, and cognitive impairments, usually strikes in adolescence or early adulthood.

Although some signs suggest that a person presents a high risk of developing the disease, there is no way to definitively diagnose it before the first psychotic episode.

"If we use these types of brain measurements, we may be able to predict a little better that eventually will develop a psychosis, which could also help tailor interventions," said Guusje Collin, a visiting scholar in Mbadachusetts. Institute of Technology. in the USA.

Before experiencing a psychotic episode, characterized by abrupt changes in behavior and loss of contact with reality, patients may experience less severe symptoms, such as thinking disorders.

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This type of thinking can lead to behaviors such as jumping from subject to subject at random or giving answers unrelated to the original question. Previous studies have shown that about 25% of people with these early symptoms develop schizophrenia.

The researchers followed 158 people aged 13 to 34 who were identified as high risk because they had early symptoms.

The team also included 93 control subjects, who had no risk factors. At the beginning of the study, researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to measure a type of brain activity involving "state of rest networks".

Resting state networks consist of brain regions that preferentially connect and communicate with each other when the brain does not perform any particular cognitive tasks.

"We wanted to examine the intrinsic functional architecture of the brain to see if we could detect early aberrant brain connectivity in individuals in the high-risk phase of the disease," said Susan Whitfield-Gabrieli . , visiting scientist at MIT.

One year after the initial scans, 23 of the high-risk patients had a psychotic episode and were diagnosed with schizophrenia.

In the scans of these patients, performed prior to their diagnosis, the researchers found a distinct type of activity that was different from that of healthy controls and at-risk subjects who did not develop psychosis. .

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