Early Childhood Brain Development and Schizophrenia: An Imaging Perspective

Schizophrenia has long been thought to have origins in early brain development, though studies of fetal and early childhood brain development have been rare. Recently, imaging studies in this critical period of risk for schizophrenia have begun to delineate the normal developmental trajectories of brain structure and function. Studies to date indicate that the fundamental structural and functional architecture of the human brain is well established by the first year or two of life, and genetic and environmental risk factors for schizophrenia can alter brain development in early life. These studies also suggest that it may be possible to identify early imaging biomarkers of risk for schizophrenia, and that interventions may need to be targeted to this early period of rapid brain development.