{"id":225618,"date":"2025-11-21T20:06:46","date_gmt":"2025-11-22T02:06:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/11\/cortical-gabaergic-projection-neurons-are-implicated-in-schizophrenia"},"modified":"2025-11-21T20:06:46","modified_gmt":"2025-11-22T02:06:46","slug":"cortical-gabaergic-projection-neurons-are-implicated-in-schizophrenia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/11\/cortical-gabaergic-projection-neurons-are-implicated-in-schizophrenia","title":{"rendered":"Cortical GABAergic projection neurons are implicated in schizophrenia"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Schizophrenia stems from abnormal brain development, which can begin even before birth. Yet symptoms typically don\u2019t appear until later in life.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor a long time, the brain is able to compensate for developmental errors and maintain relatively normal function. But at some point, it\u2019s like a chain snapping \u2014 the brain can no longer compensate, and that\u2019s when symptoms emerge. Until that point, however, prevention should be possible,\u201d says one of the study\u2019s first authors.<\/p>\n

They investigated when this turning point occurs. By tracking brain development from the fetal stage to adulthood, they found that dramatic changes happen late in the brain\u2019s development. Up until the transition from childhood to adolescence, molecular and functional changes in the brain were rather minor, likely explaining lack of symptoms before adolescence.<\/p>\n

The researchers have worked with mice carrying a specific genetic mutation known as \u201c15q13.3 microdeletion syndrome.\u201d In humans, this syndrome is associated with epilepsy, schizophrenia, autism, and other neurodevelopmental disorders.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that sleep is often disrupted in people with psychiatric disorders, so we chose to use sleep as a behavioral marker\u2014something we could observe. We examined both the mice\u2019s behavior and the activity of a specific type of brain cell. Our findings show that one particular cell type (\u03b3-aminobutyric acid (GABAergic) projecting neurons) is significantly affected in the test animals compared to healthy mice,\u201d explains the author.<\/p>\n

These GABAergic rare brain cells are often overlooked because they make up only a tiny fraction of the brain\u2019s total cell population. Nevertheless, they play a crucial role in regulating many brain functions.<\/p>\n

The new study not only demonstrates a link between this specific type of brain cell and sleep \u2014 it also shows that the mice\u2019s sleep patterns began to resemble those of healthy mice when researchers reduced the activity of the cell type in question.<\/p>\n

Continue reading \u201cCortical GABAergic projection neurons are implicated in schizophrenia\u201d | ><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Schizophrenia stems from abnormal brain development, which can begin even before birth. Yet symptoms typically don\u2019t appear until later in life. \u201cFor a long time, the brain is able to compensate for developmental errors and maintain relatively normal function. But at some point, it\u2019s like a chain snapping \u2014 the brain can no longer compensate, [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":662,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,412,47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-225618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical","category-genetics","category-neuroscience"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/662"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225618"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225618\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}