Mind movies
Real disease. In schizophrenia, the maps show changes "exploding like a lava flow over the brain," Thompson says. The disease often strikes teenagers, causing a frightening mix of hallucinations and psychotic behavior, and it comes on very suddenly. Doctors have puzzled for years over the changes in the brain that might trigger this. A few years ago, Thompson showed that abnormalities in schizophrenics first cropped up in a zone called the parietal lobe. This region integrates input from various senses, like hearing, and passes them on to the rest of the brain. "This really was a revolutionary finding," says Leuchter. "Showing that a brain area involved in auditory processing is abnormal is a lot different than simply saying, 'Oh, they hear voices. It's just in their imagination.' Well, it's not just in the imagination. It makes it into a bona fide illness."
And an illness that can be treated, perhaps better than it has been in the past. Thompson, with scientists at Columbia University and elsewhere, has begun to compare an older drug, haloperidol, with a newer antipsychotic, olanzapine. So far, the newer drug seems to preserve more brain cells. It's also a lot more expensive. But Leuchter and others say that showing it improves brain function helps make the case for using it to penny-pinching health insurers. And that makes Thompson's images not only more than pretty pictures, but true maps to better health.
MAPPING DISEASE
Images reveal how illnesses engulf the brain over months and years.
SCHIZOPHRENIA
The diseased brain first shows damage (pink) at the back, in the parietal lobe. This area helps integrate information from the senses, and damage might cause hallucinations. Over the next five years, the abnormalities move forward.
[Chart labels]
At first diagnosis
2 1/2 years later
5 years later
A BETTER DRUG?
Olanzapine, a newer antipsychotic used to treat schizophrenia, appears to prevent more damage than an older drug, haloperidol, in a preliminary study. Red, green, and yellow areas indicate greater cell loss.
[Chart labels]
Olanzapine
Haloperidol
ALZHEIMER'S
Cell loss, shown in red and white, first hits areas involved in emotions and memory, and then quickly moves to the front of the brain to affect regions involved in self-control.
[Chart labels]
At first diagnosis
6 months later
18 months later
Courtesy Paul Thompson, Kiralee Hayashi, and Arthur Toga; Middle row courtesy Jeffrey Lieberman, Gary Tollefson, Cecil Charles, and Paul Thompson
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