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   Under the Hood   
   Healthy Aging And Disease: Alzheimer's, Schizophrenia May Come From Similar   
   Weak Spots In The Brain   
   Nov 29, 2014 04:27 PM   
   By Stephanie Castillo   
    MRI brain scan   
      
      
   A new study dives deeper into the link between Alzheimer's and schizophrenia,   
   as well as the part of the brain more vulnerable to these diseases despite   
   their major differences. Reigh LeBlanc/CC BY-NC 2.0   
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   The brain has a weak spot for disease, according to new research published in   
   the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.   
      
   Researchers from the University of Oxford used magnetic resonance imaging   
   (MRI) scans to observe brain structure in 484 healthy people between ages 8   
   and 85. This approach made it so they could study age-related changes, or   
   patterns, in the brain. And    
   the scans revealed a sort-of brain network within grey matter that, although   
   it developed later than the rest of the brain, is the first to degenerate, or   
   declinate, as people age. Grey brain matter is often referred to when   
   discussing age-related brain    
   degeneration, yet this study is the first to show it's more vulnerable than   
   other networks. In other words, a weak spot.   
      
   "Our results show that the same specific parts of the brain not only develop   
   more slowly, but also degenerate faster than other parts," said Dr. Gwenaëlle   
   Douaud, lead study author of Oxford University's Centre for Functional   
   Magnetic Resonance Imaging    
   of the Brain, in a press release. "These complex regions, which combine   
   information coming from various senses, seem to be more vulnerable than the   
   rest of the brain to both schizophrenia and Alzheimer's, even though these two   
   diseases have different    
   origins and appear at very different, almost opposite, times of life."   
      
      
   When Douaud and her team compared their study scans to those done on   
   Alzheimer's and schizophrenia patients, they found significant similarities   
   between the three. This would suggest certain areas of the brain play a role   
   in the emergence of these    
   diseases, which are basically polar opposites in terms of their    
   haracteristics.   
      
   Interestingly enough, in the early days, schizophrenia was considered   
   "premature dementia," Hugh Perry, chairman of the MRC's Neurosciences and   
   Mental Health Board, said. A 2001 study in the Journal of Neurology,   
   Neurosurgery & Psychiatry found    
   schizophrenia patients experienced symptoms normally pointing to dementia,   
   including disorientation, poor intellectual performance, and incontinence.   
      
   "This large-scale and detailed study provides an important, and previously   
   missing, link between development, aging, and disease processes in the brain,"   
   Perry said. "It raises important issues about possible genetic and   
   environmental factors that may    
   occur in early life and then have lifelong consequences. The more we can find   
   out about these very difficult disorders, the closer we will come to helping   
   sufferers and their families."   
      
      
   Source: Douaud G, et al. A common brain network links development, aging, and   
   vulnerability to disease. PNAS. 2014.   
      
      
      
      
      
   http://www.medicaldaily.com/healthy-aging-and-disease-alzheimers   
   schizophrenia-may-come-similar-weak-spots-brain-312480   
      
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