‘Mutating genes are key to treating schizophrenia’ says top neuroscientist

Evolutionary genetic changes in the brain are at the root of severe mental disorders, Professor Sir Michael Owen to tell this year's Darwin lecture

Major psychological disorders such as schizophrenia will continue to affect humans because men and women are continually generating genetic mutations that disrupt brain development.

This will be the key conclusion of Professor Sir Michael Owen, director of Cardiff University's centre for neuropsychiatric genetics and genomics, when he gives the annual Darwin Lecture at the Royal Society of Medicine this week. Understanding such conditions at an evolutionary level will be crucial to developing treatments, Owen believes.