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Brain growth charts, discovery gap — the week in infographics
Nature highlights three key graphics from the week in science and research.
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News & Views |
Genetic origins of schizophrenia find common ground
Two differing approaches that are used to study common and rare genetic causes of schizophrenia reveal convergent clues about the biology underlying this complex disorder.
- Conrad O. Iyegbe
- & Paul F. O’Reilly
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Article |
Rare coding variants in ten genes confer substantial risk for schizophrenia
Whole-exome sequencing identifies ten risk genes for schizophrenia implicated by rare protein-coding variants, a subset of which overlap with risk genes in other neurodevelopmental disorders.
- Tarjinder Singh
- , Timothy Poterba
- & Mark J. Daly
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Article |
Mapping genomic loci implicates genes and synaptic biology in schizophrenia
A genome-wide association study including over 76,000 individuals with schizophrenia and over 243,000 control individuals identifies common variant associations at 287 genomic loci, and further fine-mapping analyses highlight the importance of genes involved in synaptic processes.
- Vassily Trubetskoy
- , Antonio F. Pardiñas
- & Jim van Os
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Article |
GluD1 is a signal transduction device disguised as an ionotropic receptor
The ionotropic glutamate delta receptors GluD1 and GluD2 form distinct neurexin–cerebellin complexes that differentially regulate postsynaptic glutamate receptor activities.
- Jinye Dai
- , Christopher Patzke
- & Thomas C. Südhof
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Article |
Complement genes contribute sex-biased vulnerability in diverse disorders
Sexual dimorphism in genetic vulnerability to schizophrenia, systemic lupus erythematosus and Sjögren’s syndrome is linked to differential protein abundance from alleles of complement component 4.
- Nolan Kamitaki
- , Aswin Sekar
- & Steven A. McCarroll
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News |
First genomic study of schizophrenia in African people turns up broken genes
Genetic studies of mental illness have largely been conducted in people with European ancestry.
- Alison Abbott
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Outlook |
Eyes hint at hidden mental-health conditions
Eye examinations could enable clinicians to detect early signs of neurological and neuropsychiatric conditions.
- Marcus Woo
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News |
Huge brain study uncovers ‘buried’ genetic networks linked to mental illness
Enormous genomic analysis yields tantalizing insights into mechanisms behind conditions such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
- Linda Geddes
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News & Views |
Pruning hypothesis comes of age
The idea that disrupted pruning of neuronal connections in the brain during adolescence is a cause of schizophrenia was proposed in 1983. This proved prescient, as subsequent imaging, genetic and molecular research has shown.
- Matthew B. Johnson
- & Beth Stevens
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Obituary |
Pamela Sklar (1959–2017)
Psychiatrist who sought the genetic roots of mental illness.
- Mark Daly
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News |
Geneticists are starting to unravel evolution's role in mental illness
Hints emerge that past environments could have influenced psychiatric disorders.
- Sara Reardon
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News |
Former US mental-health chief leaves Google for start-up
Tom Insel will help to launch a company to analyse behaviour and mental illness using smartphone data.
- Sara Reardon
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News & Views |
50 & 100 Years Ago
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News Q&A |
US mental-health chief: psychiatry must get serious about mathematics
Joshua Gordon says that his focus at the National Institute of Mental Health will be on quick wins, brain circuits and mathematical rigour.
- Alison Abbott
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News & Views |
From genetics to physiology at last
The identification of a set of genetic variations that are strongly associated with the risk of developing schizophrenia provides insights into the neurobiology of this destructive disease. See Article p.177
- Ryan S. Dhindsa
- & David B. Goldstein
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Outlook |
Perspective: Be clear about the real risks
The assertion that cannabis use can cause schizophrenia is not borne out by the evidence, says Matthew Hill.
- Matthew Hill
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Books & Arts |
Neuroscience: In the blink of an I
Douwe Draaisma is impressed by a study on the science behind 'maladies of the self'.
- Douwe Draaisma
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Outlook |
Aetiology: Searching for schizophrenia's roots
Sixty years after the first schizophrenia drug hit the market, researchers are still struggling to understand and treat the disorder. By Emily Elert.
- Emily Elert
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Outlook |
Prevention: Before the break
Paying attention to risk factors and warning signs could avert some cases of schizophrenia — or at least better prepare people for what's to come.
- Michele Solis
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Outlook |
Language: Lost in translation
Unravelling the mystery of verbal dysfunction in schizophrenia could yield clues to the nature of the disease.
- David Noonan
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Outlook |
Developing countries: The outcomes paradox
Schizophrenia patients in developing countries seem to fare better than their Western counterparts. Researchers are keen to find out why.
- T. V. Padma
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Outlook |
Genetics: Unravelling complexity
A massive research collaboration is revealing hundreds of genes underlying schizophrenia risk, and may point the way to targeted treatments.
- Jessica Wright
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Outlook |
Ageing: Live faster, die younger
People with schizophrenia show signs of accelerated ageing — a phenomenon that could lead researchers to a deeper understanding of the disease.
- Emily Anthes
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Outlook |
Perspective: Revealing molecular secrets
The more we study the genetics of schizophrenia, says Steven E. Hyman, the more daunting — and exciting — are the challenges we see ahead.
- Steven E. Hyman
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Outlook |
Drug development: The modelling challenge
Researchers have made good progress with animal tests for cognition. The next step is to devise a rodent model for drug development.
- Alla Katsnelson
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Outlook |
Therapeutics: Negative feedback
Schizophrenia debilitates not just by psychosis but by depriving people of the ability to feel pleasure.
- Elie Dolgin
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Outlook |
Perspective: Retreat from the radical
Failures in the development of schizophrenia treatments don't justify the dramatic overhaul now being proposed, says Stephen R. Marder.
- Stephen R. Marder
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Article |
De novo mutations in schizophrenia implicate synaptic networks
The authors report the largest family-trio exome sequencing study of schizophrenia to date; mutations are overrepresented in genes for glutamatergic synaptic proteins and also genes mutated in autism and intellectual disability, providing insights into aetiological mechanisms and pathopshyisology shared with other neurodevelopmental disorders.
- Menachem Fromer
- , Andrew J. Pocklington
- & Michael C. O’Donovan
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Article |
A polygenic burden of rare disruptive mutations in schizophrenia
Exome sequence analysis of more than 5,000 schizophrenia cases and controls identifies a polygenic burden primarily arising from rare, disruptive mutations distributed across many genes, among which are those encoding voltage-gated calcium ion channels and the signalling complex formed by the ARC protein of the postsynaptic density; as in autism, mutations were also found in homologues of known targets of the fragile X mental retardation protein.
- Shaun M. Purcell
- , Jennifer L. Moran
- & Pamela Sklar
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News Feature |
Treating schizophrenia: Game on
Michael Merzenich has a plan for how to convince sceptics of the worth of his brain-training video games: prove that the software can help people with schizophrenia.
- Erika Check Hayden
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News |
More clues in the genetics of schizophrenia
Chinese researchers add three chromosomal regions to a slow-growing list of genetic links.
- David Cyranoski
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News Q&A |
A radical approach to mental illness
Daniel Weinberger on why he left the National Institutes of Health to join the Lieber Institute for Brain Development.
- Alison Abbott
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News |
Schizophrenia 'in a dish'
Researchers are making inroads in the daunting challenge of modelling mental illness, thanks to patients' cells.
- Ewen Callaway
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Letter |
Modelling schizophrenia using human induced pluripotent stem cells
- Kristen J. Brennand
- , Anthony Simone
- & Fred H. Gage
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News & Views |
Zooming in on a gene
Genome-wide association studies are often criticized for providing little insight of immediate physiological relevance. The finding of one such study, which implicates a signalling molecule in schizophrenia, is welcome news. See Letter p.499
- Hugh D. Piggins
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Duplications of the neuropeptide receptor gene VIPR2 confer significant risk for schizophrenia
Substantial risk for schizophrenia is conferred by large copy number variants at a number of genomic loci. Here, a significant association between duplications on chromosome 7 and schizophrenia is reported. Importantly, microduplication analysis narrowed down the region to a region just upstream of a gene encoding vasoactive intestinal peptide receptor (VIPR2). Increased expression of VIPR2 in patients with schizophrenia implicates VIP signalling as a molecular mechanism underlying schizophrenia.
- Vladimir Vacic
- , Shane McCarthy
- & Jonathan Sebat
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Antipsychotic drugs could shrink patients' brains
Experts say findings should not dramatically change current prescription practices.
- David Cyranoski
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Editorial |
Combating schizophrenia
Research has revealed daunting complexities in the psychiatric condition, but also new routes towards diagnosis and treatment.
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Books & Arts |
In retrospect: The five lives of the psychiatry manual
Roy Richard Grinker describes the military origins of the key reference work for diagnosing mental illness.
- Roy Richard Grinker
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Comment |
Cognitive remediation therapy needs funding
More rigorous studies should be done on the effects of a therapy that seems to improve the everyday functioning of people with schizophrenia, says Til Wykes.
- Til Wykes
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News Feature |
Schizophrenia: The drug deadlock
The biology is too complicated. Pharma companies are quitting. Where are schizophrenia drugs going to come from?
- Alison Abbott
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News Feature |
Schizophrenia: The making of a troubled mind
Schizophrenia appears during adolescence. But where does one begin and the other end?
- David Dobbs
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Perspective |
From maps to mechanisms through neuroimaging of schizophrenia
- Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg
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A concerted neuron–astrocyte program declines in ageing and schizophrenia
Schizophrenia
Rethinking schizophrenia
The environment and schizophrenia