Last September, Csernansky and colleagues published the results of their study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences looking at 15 patients with schizophrenia and 15 normal control subjects. The investigators found that in patients with schizophrenia, specific areas of the hippocampus appear to have small but distinct deformities. The computer uses different colors to visualize indentations and protrusions that differ from the normal structure of the hippocampus. Blue and purple depict parts where the surface is abnormally collapsing inward. Red represents abnormal bulging outward.
Taller people have bigger brains.
Men tend to have bigger brains than women, but size, per se, doesn't seem to be terribly predictive of function. He hopes to recruit 60 patients with schizophrenia and 60 normal subjects for the study. The School of Medicine is one of the leading medical research, teaching and patient care institutions in the nation. Through its affiliations with Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Children's hospitals, the School of Medicine is linked to BJC Health System.