Schizophrenia: a new frontier in developmental neurobiology

Evidence from diverse sources, including postmortem investigations, in vivo imaging studies and animal models, suggests that schizophrenia has its origins in early cortical maldevelopment, which in turn may lead to dysfunctional connectivity during brain maturation and clinical symptomatology in early adulthood. Antipsychotic drugs, including the atypical agent clozapine, appear to act at key sites involved in higher cortical-limbic connectivity, possibly mediated by a variety of neurotransmitters. Studies of gene expression may provide a better understanding of how antipsychotic drug effects are integrated at the postsynaptic level. The data from schizophrenia research are discussed within a neurodevelopmental framework.