New Study Reveals Schizophrenia's Impact on Brain Structure - Video

The symptoms of schizophrenia vary greatly from person to person. A new study shows how these differences manifest themselves in the structure of the brain.

Schizophrenia is a complex mental health condition that affects perception, thought and emotions. This complexity is reflected in the individual manifestations of the disease: for some patients, perceptual disturbances are the main problem, while for others, cognitive impairments are more prevalent. “In this sense, there is not one schizophrenia, but many, each with different neurobiological profiles,” says Wolfgang Omlor, first author of the study and senior physician at the University Hospital of Psychiatry Zurich.

Data was collected by comparing the brain structures of several thousand patients with schizophrenia and healthy individuals, the variability of brain structure could be studied with a high degree of reliability.

While variable brain structures in schizophrenia may reflect differences in symptoms between patients, the uniformity of brain folding in the mid-frontal brain area suggests a developmental trait common to people with schizophrenia. Because brain folding is largely completed in early childhood, brain development during this period appears to be less flexible in schizophrenia patients, particularly in areas responsible for linking thinking and feeling processes.

While uniform brain folding may indicate possible mechanisms of disease development, regions with high variability in brain structure may be relevant for the development of individualized treatment strategies

Ref: Mancini V, Latreche C, Fanshawe JB, Varvari I, Zauchenberger C-Z, McGinn N, et al. Anticholinergic Burden and Cognitive Function in Psychosis: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. American Journal of Psychiatry [Internet]. American Psychiatric Publishing; 2025 Feb 26 [cited 2025 Feb 26];0(0). https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.20240260