Brain Scans Reveal Two Key Regions Involved in Psychosis Risk

Brain scans and machine learning pinpoint two key regions involved in psychosis - the anterior insula and ventral striatum. These are part of the brain's "salience network".

Psychosis involves hallucinations and delusions due to malfunctioning attention networks in the brain.

The study scanned the brains of people with a genetic condition tied to psychosis risk to identify brain signatures before medication use.

Overlapping brain signatures were found in two parts of the salience network in people with psychosis.

Targeting these two regions could lead to new treatments to prevent or delay psychosis in high-risk groups.