Assessing the machinery of mind: synapses in neuropsychiatric disorders

Neural connectivity in postmortem human brain can now be studied with the u se of antibodies that react with synapse-enriched proteins. Using a range o f antibody-based techniques, the authors observed abnormalities in connecti vity in Alzheimer's disease, temporal lobe epilepsy. and schizophrenia. The y also found disease-related differences in the individual protein markers affected and in the anatomical distribution of differences from controls. M olecular and cellular abnormalities in neural connectivity may underlie fun ctional abnormalities observed in vivo using positron emission tomography o r functional magnetic resonance imaging.