A new longitudinal study of over 6,000 children reveals that those with high genetic risk for schizophrenia experience a decrease in frontal brain surface area during early adolescence, while their peers experience growth. This dynamic divergence provides a potential early marker for schizophrenia years before symptoms appear.
The Research
Published in Biological Psychiatry by Elsevier, the study analyzed data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study and the Generation R Study, totaling 6,228 participants aged 9 to 14 of European descent. Researchers collected 9,720 brain images via MRI scans over several years, combined with genetic data to calculate polygenic risk scores for schizophrenia.
Lead investigator Henning Tiemeier, MD, PhD (Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health) and colleagues found that children with low genetic risk showed expected increases in cortical surface area of the caudal middle and superior frontal regions during early adolescence. In contrast, those with high genetic risk showed decreases in these same regions, a sharp deviation from normal development.
Importantly, genetic risks for ADHD and educational attainment were linked to static differences in brain size, but only schizophrenia risk was associated with a dynamic change over time — a true divergence. The study focused on surface area rather than cortical thickness, as these are genetically distinct and follow different developmental paths.
Why It Matters
Schizophrenia typically manifests in young adulthood, but these findings support the neurodevelopmental theory: genetic liability reshapes the brain nearly a decade earlier. This means that by age 9 to 14, high-risk individuals already show observable brain structure changes, offering a window for early intervention. Understanding your own genetic risk may become feasible as polygenic testing advances, but for now, the study highlights how brain development is shaped by both genes and environment.
What You Can Do
While you cannot change your genetic risk, you can support healthy brain development through lifestyle factors: regular exercise, good sleep, balanced nutrition, and staying cognitively active. Brain training platforms like iqgenio offer evidence-based exercises that may help strengthen prefrontal functions, the very regions affected in this study.
Source: Neuroscience News
Curious about your own brain? Take our free adaptive IQ test or try 306 brain training levels.
