Rutgers, Yale PET Study Finds Synaptic Loss Across 122 Brains in Schizophrenia
Updated
Updated · BIOENGINEER.ORG · Jul 15
Rutgers, Yale PET Study Finds Synaptic Loss Across 122 Brains in Schizophrenia
2 articles · Updated · BIOENGINEER.ORG · Jul 15
Summary
A 122-participant study, including 29 people with schizophrenia, used synaptic-density PET scans to directly measure living brain connections and found pronounced, widespread losses versus healthy participants.
Frontal and temporal regions, along with memory and emotion systems, showed the biggest declines, with the left hemisphere more affected than the right.
The PET pattern diverged from MRI-measured brain-volume changes, suggesting schizophrenia may involve partly separate processes affecting synapses and overall brain structure.
Receptor-rich areas tied to serotonin, GABA and glutamate showed the greatest synaptic reductions, and computer models pointed to the left frontal lobe as a likely starting point for spread.
The findings, published in Molecular Psychiatry, could help target future treatments to preserve or restore synapses and guide longitudinal studies of how the damage evolves.
Can this new brain scan identify at-risk teens before schizophrenia symptoms even begin?
Is synaptic loss the true cause of schizophrenia, or just a scar left by another hidden biological process?
If schizophrenia is a disease of lost brain connections, can new drugs actually rebuild the brain's wiring?
Widespread Synaptic Loss in Schizophrenia: Rutgers-Yale PET Study Reveals 6–12% Reductions and New Paths for Diagnosis and Treatment
Overview
A groundbreaking study by Rutgers and Yale researchers, published in June 2026, used advanced PET imaging with the [11C]UCB-J radiotracer to directly measure synaptic density in living human brains. By quantifying the synaptic vesicle glycoprotein 2A (SV2A), the team compared 28 individuals with schizophrenia to 28 healthy controls. The results revealed widespread synaptic loss in those with schizophrenia, providing crucial new insights into the biological basis of the disorder. This direct measurement approach marks a significant step forward in understanding how schizophrenia affects brain connectivity at the synaptic level.