Neurobiology of schizophrenic syndromes.

The development of imaging technologies for investigating the living human brain has expanded knowledge about schizophrenia and is providing clues about biological factors associated with the disorder. Drawing on these and other developments in the last two decades, the authors review selected structural, functional, neurochemical, immunological, and infectious factors associated with the schizophrenic syndrome. Many of the biological alterations reported have also been found in other psychiatric, neurological, and medical conditions; therefore, the findings have little specificity for schizophrenia and in fact support the heterogeneity of the disorder.