White Matter Defects May Lead to Schizophrenia

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"In reality, there are no good animal models of schizophrenia," he said. "It's just hard to make a rat act like they're psychotic. It's just such a human behavior. We don't know if they're delusional. We don't know if they're hallucinating."

Still, the new findings are intriguing and could also have implications for bipolar disorder, which also seems to involve NRG1 and white matter defects.

"This may help identify people who are at risk," Corfas said. "The current idea about schizophrenia is that it's a developmental disorder, that when we grow up, something in the way our brains are developed puts us at risk. Something could make us lose the balance. It could be drugs. It could be emotional stress. It could be anything, so identifying people who are at risk might help develop the tools and strategies to protect them."

More information

Visit the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health for more on schizophrenia.