Molecular Switch Boosts Brain Activity Associated With Schizophrenia, National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Karolinska Institute Study

ScienceDaily (Aug. 14, 2008) — People with schizophrenia have an alteration in a pattern of brain electrical activity associated with learning and memory. Now, researchers from the National Institutes of Health and Sweden’s Karolinska Institute have identified in mouse brain tissue a molecular switch that, when thrown, increases the strength of this electrical pattern. The researchers found that adding the brain chemical Neuregulin-1 to the brain tissue boosted the electrical signals that the tissue generated.