Imaging Study Reveals a Clue to Schizophrenia

A magnetic resonance (MR) brain imaging study has revealed that the thalamus, the brain's main sensory filter, is smaller than normal from the earliest stages of schizophrenia. The study, conducted by researchers at the Institute of Psychiatry (London, UK), was published in the January issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry.

The thalamus is of particular interest in schizophrenia because it is the area of the brain where information is received and relayed to other areas. It receives information by way of the senses, which is then filtered and passed to the proper regions for processing. Schizophrenia patients often have difficulty in processing information properly and, as a result, may experience brain overload in some areas.

The study involved 67 participants, of whom 38 were experiencing their first episode of psychosis and 29 were healthy volunteers. In contrast to other studies, 13 of the schizophrenia patients had no or little experience of antipsychotic medication. MRI scans identified differences in the thalamus between the two groups. The results showed that even in the earliest stages of schizophrenia, the thalamus was smaller than in healthy people. The researchers say these findings along with other findings that schizophrenia patients have decreased gray matter at the earliest stages of the illness suggest a role for brain imaging to pinpoint warning signs of illness and perhaps even prevent its development.

"This study reveals that there is a fundamental problem in the hub of the brain,” says Dr. Tonmoy Sharma, leader of the study. "If you think of the brain in terms of networks, it is like making a phone call when the line is not connected properly. The call can't be made, or you may get through to the wrong person. It is the same in the brain.”