Subtle malformations in the shape of the thalamus in the brain are generally found in schizophrenic patients -- and their healthy siblings appear to display the same abnormalities, according to a study published on June 6, 2007 in The Journal of Neuroscience.
Scientists at the Silvio Conte Center for the Neuroscience of Mental Disorders at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis performed MRI scans of the brains of 25 patients with schizophrenia, as well as their non-affected siblings. These scans were compared to those of 40 healthy volunteers and their siblings. A process that converts the two-dimensional images of the scan into three-dimensional models of brain anatomy, also known as high-dimensional brain mapping, was used to detect tiny differences in the anatomy of the brain.
"We're interested in the thalamus because it has a lot of connections to the prefrontal cortex," states Michael P. Harms, Ph.D., senior scientist at the Conte Center. " In addition to psychosis, schizophrenia is characterized by other difficulties, such as issues with working memory and decreased cognitive performance. Those symptoms are believed to involve the cortex, and since the thalamus projects throughout the cortex, it's conceivable abnormalities in the thalamus may be related to those symptoms."
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