Grant: Project Grant

Schizophrenia is a psychiatric illness with a significant burden for patients, their families, and the society. However, the reasons why some people develop schizophrenia remain poorly understood. It typically develops during late adolescence and early adulthood, the stage when the brain is rapidly maturing. As the brain becomes mature it identifies connections between brain cells that are not being used and removes them, a process called "pruning". This process leads to an efficient adult brain. A reduced count of brain cell bodies and extensions has been observed in post-mortem tissue from patients with schizophrenia. This is believed to result from an excessive pruning leading to distorted thought processes and odd behaviour as observed in patients. However, it has not been possible to quantify brain cell bodies and their extensions in living humans until now. Recently, a novel radioactive dye ([11C]UCB-J) has been developed to image brain cell extensions using a positron emission tomography (PET) camera. In this study, PET will be used to quantify brain cell extensions in the cerebral cortex in healthy volunteers and patients with schizophrenia. Information on changes in brain cell extensions as well as brain volume, behaviour and cognition will be collected, and interactions between them explored. The results of this study will help us understand the underlying causes of schizophrenia. This proposal is anticipated to provide the first proof for a reduction of brain cell extensions in schizophrenia in living humans needed to inform future studies in order to detect the disease at an earlier stage and for identification of disease mechanisms that will help target mental health interventions.