Teenage Brain Development Tied To The Development Of Mental Health Disorders

Mental illnesses like schizophrenia and depression are commonly first seen in the teenager years. Now, a new study from University of Cambridge and University College London involving the brain scans of teenagers shows this important stage of brain development and offers insights on mental illness.

"Adolescence can be a difficult transitional period and it's when we typically see the first signs of mental health disorders such as schizophrenia and depression," said Professor Ed Bullmore, Head of Psychiatry at Cambridge, as per Medical Xpress. "This study gives us a clue why this is the case: it's during these teenage years that those brain regions that have the strongest link to the schizophrenia risk genes are developing most rapidly. 

Teen brains can show signs of schizophrenia or depression years before symptoms develop https://t.co/YCb6ct4yWi

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The researchers examined MRI scans in order to compare the brain structures of almost 300 individuals aged 14 to 24. According to CBS, their findings showed that the outer region of the brain, called the cortex, gets thinner as teenagers grow older while the sheath covering nerve fibers and allows them to have good communication with one another, called myelin, is increased.

"During our teenage years, our brains continue to develop. When we're still children, these changes may be more dramatic, but in adolescence we see that the changes refine the detail," said Kirstie Whitaker the study's first author, as per Medical Xpress. Whitaker is from the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Cambridge.

Daily Mail reported that the British researchers compared the MRI scans to Allen Brain Atlas, a 3D map that shows the location of different genes in the brain. By comparing the two, they reportedly found that the greatest changes in the brain during the teenage years occurred in areas where genes linked with the risk of schizophrenia were most strongly expressed.

"This study sheds much needed light on brain development in this crucial time period, and will hopefully spark further research in this area, and tell us more about the origins of serious mental health conditions such as schizophrenia," said Dr. Raliza Stoyanova of the Wellcome Trust, which funded the study, as per Daily Mail. The study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.