Neuroscientists at The University of Queensland have uncovered how vitamin D deficiency affects developing neurons in schizophrenia, using new technology.
Professor Darryl Eyles has built on past research out of his laboratory at the Queensland Brain Institute linking maternal vitamin D deficiency and brain development disorders, such as schizophrenia, to understand the functional changes taking place in the brain.
Schizophrenia is associated with many developmental risk factors, both genetic and environmental. While the precise neurological causes of the disorder are unknown, what is known is that schizophrenia is associated with a pronounced change in the way the brain uses dopamine, the neurotransmitter often referred to as the brain’s ‘reward molecule’.
Professor Eyles has followed the mechanisms that might relate to abnormal dopamine release and discovered that maternal vitamin…
