Researchers Target Brain Impairments Such as Schizophrenia with Early Intervention

An early intervention to address neuropsychiatric deficiencies, or preemptive cognitive training, can help the brain function normally later in life, according to a team of researchers after a recent series of experiments on laboratory rats. Their findings hold promise for addressing a range of brain impairments in humans, including schizophrenia. The study — which was conducted at New York University’s Center for Neural Science, the State University of New York (SUNY) Downstate Medical Center, NYU Langone Medical Center and the Nathan S. Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research — appears in the latest issue of the journal Neuron.

Researchers have aimed to address human neuropsychiatric impairments such as schizophrenia through mental training — for example, executive function exercises through which patients can learn to focus their attention and selectively recall important information. These methods, collectively titled cognitive remediation, have been of limited value historically because they have been applied to patients whose conditions are too advanced to address. For more information, click here to read the full release.