A new study using specialized MRI scans led by Professor Jianfeng Feng and his colleagues provides evidence that patients with schizophrenia actually possess the ability to reorganize and battle the mental illness. This is the first time that imaging scans have been employed to demonstrate the ability of the brain to actually reverse the devastating effects of schizophrenia.

Although schizophrenia is typically associated with a global reduction in the volume of brain tissue, recent evidence indicates that there is actually a small increase in tissue and volume that may occur in specific areas of the brain.

The study, “Dynamic cerebral reorganization in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia: a MRI-derived cortical thickness study,” was published online in Psychology Medicine.

The researchers studied 98 patients with schizophrenia and compared them to 83 patients without schizophrenia. Using Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and a specialized approach known as covariance analysis, researchers noted an increase in the gray matter tissue in the brains of those patients with schizophrenia. This was difficult to demonstrate in the past, researchers say, due to a wide distribution of perceived increases in brain volume in such patients.