Brain Development on Adults with Schizophrenia

描述(申请人提供)：磁共振成像显示，正常的大脑发育一直持续到40岁中后期的S，此时额叶和颞叶的脑白质体积达到最大。这证实了尸检证据表明，这些脑区的髓鞘形成一直持续到40岁的S。髓鞘对正常的大脑功能至关重要，因为它增加了轴突的传递速度。髓鞘形成的增加受到很好的调节，并且伴随着灰质体积的减少而发生，导致成年后脑容量保持不变。精神分裂症被认为是一种疾病，部分原因是大脑发育异常。我们观察到，当进行横断面检查时，成年后缺乏正常髓鞘的成年精神分裂症受试者大脑发育异常。该项目将通过重新扫描5年前和11年前首次扫描的受试者队列，前瞻性地检查精神分裂症患者和正常成年人的灰质和白质体积的变化。该项目将更明确地检验精神分裂症患者成年后大脑发育失调的理论，并将研究预后不佳的患者是否特别有可能在成年后遭受这种发育问题的困扰。如果得到证实，导致所有精神分裂症的固定的、因此无法修复的大脑发育问题的流行概念将被超越。这将改变我们对如何治疗这种疾病的概念，改变其终生病程的可行性，并将鼓励开发新的药物干预措施来改善髓鞘形成。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Magnetic resonance imaging has shown that normal brain development continues into the mid-to-late 40's when maximal white matter volumes are reached in the frontal and temporal lobes. This confirms postmortem evidence suggesting that myelination of these brain areas continues into the 40's. Myelin is crucial for normal brain function because it increases the speed of axonal transmission. The increase in myelination is well regulated and occurs in concert with a decrease in gray matter volume resulting in a constant brain volume in adulthood. Schizophrenia is believed to be a disease caused in part by abnormal brain development. We observed that when examined crossectionally, brain development was dysregulated in adult schizophrenic subjects with an absence of normal myelination in adulthood. This project will examine gray and white matter volume changes in schizophrenia and normal adults prospectively by rescanning cohorts of subjects that were initially scanned 5 and 11 years ago. The project will more definitively test the theory that in schizophrenia, brain development is dysregulated in adulthood and will examine whether patients that have a poor outcome are particularly likely to suffer from this developmental problem in adulthood. If confirmed, the prevailing concept of a fixed and therefore unreparable brain developmental problem causing all schizophrenia will be surpassed. This will change our concept of how we could treat this illness, the feasibility of changing its lifelong course, and would encourage the development of novel pharmacologic interventions to improve myelination.