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Brain scans could help early detection of spot Schizophrenia

Scanning technology has helped researchers pinpoint the part of the brain that appears to be where psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia begin, a new study says.

Research could help doctors diagnose disorders in their early stages and help scientists develop more effective drugs, according to the report in the Sept. 7 issue of the Archives of Psychiatry.

The study, researched at Columbia University in New York City scanned the brains of 18 people at high risk for psychosis, using a novel high-resolution application of functional MRI technology, an imaging method that tracks which parts of the brain are most active.

Seventy percent of the participants who went on to develop disorders such as schizophrenia had very high activity in a region of the hippocampus known as the CA1 subfield, the study authors found.

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