Schizophrenia is a mental illness that affects an estimated 1% of people in Ireland. Those affected can find it difficult to tell what is real and what is not, manage emotions and to think clearly. The condition can result in psychotic episodes. Psychosis is a complex phenomenon and experts are not sure what causes it.
Some scientists are taking medical images of the brain to understand how and why this disease comes about. One method of taking pictures of the brain is called Diffusion MRI which uses magnetic fields and water molecules to create very accurate maps of fluid motion within the brain. These maps display the brain as 3D pixels called voxels. Each voxel contains nerve fibres within them.
At present, these voxels only contain measurements that describe the average of all fiber directions -a summary. However, a new method of analysing these voxels is being developed which allows scientists to measure properties of each nerve fibre bundle within each voxel. We hope to use this method to get a more accurate picture of the nerve pathways in health and illness. Understanding where the connections break down is key to progressing our understanding of psychosis.
