A new study says that abnormal functioning of brain circuits ups the risk of developing schizophrenia in children.
Researchers from the University of North Carolina, who conducted the study said that doctors can identify this problem in children with the help of brain scans.
People whose parents or siblings suffer from schizophrenia have up to 12 times chances of developing the mental illness, the study stated.
The researchers carried out functional MRI brain scans on 42 children, aged nine to 18. The children were asked to form a circle from a line-up of emotionally triggering images such as cute or scary animals. Relatives of half of the kids suffered from schizophrenia.
The brain scans revealed that the circuitry involved in emotion and higher order decision making was 'hyperactivated' in children with a family history of schizophrenia. The researchers found that the activity stressed out these particular brain areas.
"This finding shows that these regions are not activating normally," lead study author, Aysenil Belger, an associate professor of psychiatry at the UNC School of Medicine, said in a news release.
"We think that this hyperactivation eventually damages these specific areas in the brain to the point that they become hypoactivated in patients, meaning that when the brain is asked to go into high gear it no longer can," Belger explained.
Identifying children who may develop schizophrenia at an early stage might help in preventing it.
"It may be as simple as understanding that people are different in how they cope with stress," Belger said. "Teaching strategies to handle stress could make these individuals less vulnerable to not just schizophrenia but also other neuropsychiatric disorders."
The symptoms of schizophrenia normally begin in the late teenage years or in the 20s. Men show the sings of the disorder earlier than women, according to the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health. The condition is rare in children and people over age 45.
The research was published online in the journal Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging.
