Mass Loss with Schizophrenia

In the first set of photos there is more blue area. The blue area is live parts of the brain that are fully fuctioning. The same subject come back for the same test five years later and the parts that were blue are now pink. The pink areas are parts of the brain that are none functioning. This shows that not only does the brain lose functions with schizphrenia, but a very rapid rate.

Image Source: UCLA Laboratory of Neuro Imaging, UCLA, Derived from high-resolution magnetic resonance images (MRI scans), the above images were created after repeatedly scanning 12 schizophrenia subjects over five years, and comparing them with matched 12 healthy controls, scanned at the same ages and intervals. Severe loss of gray matter is indicated by red and pink colors, while stable regions are in blue. STG denotes the superior temporal gyrus, and DLPFC denotes the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Note: This study was of Childhood onset schizophrenia (defined as schizophrenia diagnosed in children under the age of 13 or so) which occurs in approximately 1 of every 40,000 people and is frequently a significantly more aggressive form of schizophrenia (than regular schizophrenia that typically begins when people are aged 15 to 25 (slightly later for women) - and impacts approximatley 1 of every 100 people).