NIH Scientists Identify Link Between Brain Systems Implicated in Schizophrenia

An October 6th news release from the National Institutes of Health:

Scientists at the National Institutes of Health have deciphered the complex relationship between three distinct brain circuits implicated in schizophrenia. The researchers determined that one brain circuit acts through an intermediary brain circuit. The intermediary circuit acts like a volume control knob, turning up the electrical activity of still another brain circuit, or turning it down.

The finding suggests that schizophrenia could result from a malfunction anywhere in the link between these three brain circuits.

"This discovery lays the groundwork for studies that may lead to more effective treatments for schizophrenia," said Duane Alexander, M.D., director of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the NIH institute where the research was undertaken. "Theoretically, each of these interrelated brain mechanisms could be the focus of drug therapy."

The study was published online in the "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences." The research was conducted by Andres Buonanno, Ph.D., and his colleagues in the Section on Molecular Neurobiology in NIH’s Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Other authors of the paper were: Oh Bin Kwon, Daniel Paredes, Carmen M. Gonzalez, Joerg Neddens, and Detlef Vullhorst; all of the NICHD; and Luis Hernandez, of the Universidad de los Andes, Merida, Venezuela.

To read the entire news release, click here.