This is a summary of an article published today on '
New Scientist' that relates to my previous post on schizophrenia. It suggests that schizophrenia may be a profound form of jetlag in which the brain's central clock runs
out of kilter with peripheral clocks around the rest of the body. A genetic mutation was found that triggers schizophrenia-like symptoms in mice, which also disrupted their circadian rhythm (body clock). This was tested by keeping the affected mice under a schedule of 12 hours of light, followed by 12 hours of darkness.
The rhythm is maintained by a patch of brain tissue called the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), which gathers information about light from the eye, and relays it to the rest of the body by proteins, allowing bodily functions to be co-ordinated. The findings from the mice experiment suggests that the development of therapeutic agents to normalise SCN signalling in schizophrenic patients may improve their quality of life and longetivity.
