Insight into schizophrenia disease mechanisms found in the eye

Impaired neuronal connectivity in the retina

21-Jan-2025 - Researchers analyzed the genetic connection of retinal cells and several neuropsychiatric disorders. By combining different datasets, they found that schizophrenia risk genes were associated with specific neurons in the retina. The involved risk genes suggest an impairment of synapse biology, so ...

Retina indicates severity of schizophrenia

Study could provide basis for individual prognoses

06-Jun-2024 - In a new study, researchers discovered that the retina of schizophrenia patients differs from the retina of healthy participants. These changes could help psychiatrists to recognize who will have a particularly severe course of illness. From an evolutionary perspective, the retina is an outgrowth ...

Similarity between schizophrenia and dementia discovered for the first time

Max Planck researchers on the trails of Emil Kraepelin

18-Aug-2022 - Researchers for the first time compared schizophrenia and frontotemporal dementia, disorders that are both located in the frontal and temporal lobe regions of the brain. The idea can be traced back to Emil Kraepelin, who coined the term "dementia praecox" in 1899 to describe the progressive ...

Acute stress leads to dynamic changes in the brain

Risk of mental illness can be inferred from stress response

22-Feb-2022 - Did doing math problems make you stressed at school? That's what happened to participants in a study of the brain's reaction to stress. For the first time, researchers looked at the entire duration of such a situation. They found not only changes in the communication of brain regions, but also a ...

Molecule determines friendships

20-Jul-2016 - Meeting new people can be both stressful and rewarding. Research at the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry, reported today in Nature Neuroscience, suggests that a molecule involved in regulating stress in the brain may also help determine how willing we are to leave the safety of our social group ...