Some people with schizophrenia have hallucinations, which means they see, hear, smell or feel things that nobody else experiences. Now, a new study sheds light on this condition and suggests that there are differences in a key region of the brain for people with schizophrenia who have hallucinations, compared with those who do not.
The researchers - led by Dr. Jon Simons from the University of Cambridge in the UK - publish their study in the journal Nature Communications.
According to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), scientists have long known that schizophrenia runs in families; it occurs in 1% of the general population but in 10% of people with a first-degree relative with the disorder.
For quite some time, researchers have believed that an imbalance in the chemical reactions of the brain could play a role in schizophrenia.
But in a previous study, Dr. Simons and colleagues found that variations in the length of a fold toward the front of the brain - known as the paracingulate sulcus (PCS) - in healthy individuals was associated with the ability to distinguish real from imagined information, which is a process known as “reality monitoring.”
“Schizophrenia is a complex spectrum of conditions that is associated with many differences throughout the brain,” explains Dr. Simons, “so it can be difficult to make specific links between brain areas and the symptoms that are often observed.”
The researchers note that the PCS is one of the last structural folds in the brain to develop before birth, and it varies in size among individuals.
For their new study, the team measured the length of the PCS in 153 structural MRI scans of people diagnosed with schizophrenia and matched them with those of control participants.