Brain ’signature' could help to diagnose schizophrenia

(© Immagine: Adobestock) - People with schizophrenia and their healthy siblings share patterns of brain activity that are different from those seen in individuals with no family history of the disorder, scientists from EPFL have found. Because the siblings do not show schizophrenia symptoms, this brain 'signature' could serve as a marker for the early diagnosis of the disorder. The findings could open up avenues for developing new treatments for schizophrenia. Schizophrenia appears in adolescence or adulthood and often comes with false beliefs, paranoid thoughts, and a tendency to see or hear things that aren't there. The strongest risk factor for the disorder is the presence of an affected close relative: one in ten siblings of people with schizophrenia are predicted to develop the disorder, compared with 1 in 100 individuals among the general population. However, scientists have known that there is no one single genetic variant that causes schizophrenia. The disorder rather stems from many different DNA mutations, duplications, and deletions that cause the developing brain to go awry.