# Building a Shared Scientific Understanding of Psychopathology: Q&A with Dost Öngür
A quote:
More recently, we added Phosphorus MRS to our imaging modalities. This approach allows us to quantify energy metabolism in the brain, and we have discovered significant abnormalities in this process in people with schizophrenia spectrum disorders. We find that there is a significant reduction in ATP synthesis in the brain, accompanied by an imbalance in critical redox reactions, starting with the first episode of psychosis. This reduction is partially attenuated in chronic illness by a switch from highly efficient oxidative phosphorylation in mitochondria to less efficient glycolysis in the cytosol. The brain in schizophrenia appears to compensate for the original problem in energy production by switching to a less desirable mechanism that can still meet the demand.