Tuesday, April 18, 2017

Learning More About Schizophrenia


Image result for schizophrenia
In the article "Scientists Made a Huge Genetic Discovery About Schizophrenia This Week" by Melissa Dahl, describes how schizophrenia affects individuals and the new discovery that was published in the journal Nature. Schizophrenia is a mental disorder that can send a young mind spinning and become unattached with reality. It occurs in about one in 100 Americans and has only been around for about 100 years. This disorder tends to run in families, therefore suspicion has arisen about it being genetically related. A milestone was published on Wednesday by a group of top scientists, declaring they have opened the "black box" of schizophrenia. the findings were the following; a genetic stamp that people with schizophrenia inherit causes a normal process on brain development called synaptic pruning to go haywire. typically the pruning process in the brain helps seed up cognitive functioning, however in a schizophrenic brain it eliminates too many of those neurons and synapses. research has shown those with schizophrenia have fewer synaptic connections compared to those without the disorder. 
Now that scientists have discovered what causes schizophrenia, they can now study how to delay or even stop the disorder from forming. Its a major leap in this field of study.
Science of Us
Brain Disorders

1 comment:

  1. This is an amazing discovery! With this research the mental illness has a chance of being cured or even prevented. This would help so many people.

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