Toward an interdisciplinary science of adolescence: insights from schizophrenia research

Unlike other primates, humans can regulate their own minds and brains and establish the self, which are based on language acquisition and social reciprocity. This capacity for self-regulation is evolutionarily realized by the highly developed neocortex and developmentally matures during adolescence. Inappropriate maturation of the neural systems responsible for self-regulation in adolescence could lead to the emergence of psychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is a devastating psychiatric disorder, the onset of which usually takes place during adolescence/youth; one of its core features is disturbance of self-related information processing. Although schizophrenia has been associated with neurodevelopmental abnormalities during the perinatal period, recently improved neuroimaging techniques have shown progressive deterioration in the structure and function of neocortical regions in the prodromal and first-episode stages of the disorder. These reconsiderations have stimulated neurobiological investigations into the normal developmental process and its disturbance of the glutamatergic/synaptic system in adolescence. Of late, clinical psychiatry has been seeking early intervention strategies by integrating biological and psychosocial approaches. By integrating epidemiology, social neuroscience, and psychiatry, we aim to establish a new interdisciplinary science to uncover the developmental mechanisms of self-regulation in adolescence and create supportive and preventive strategies, which will ultimately contribute to education and society.