A genetic scoring of schizophrenia-related genes in the placenta can predict the size of a baby’s brain at birth and its rate of cognitive development, which, dependent on other factors, may lead to schizophrenia later in life, according to a study published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). Researchers at the Lieber Institute for Brain Development (LIBD) and the University of North Carolina (UNC) School of Medicine used MRI scans at UNC from newborns and cognitive development measures for the first two years of life to uncover the finding. They noted that this was most significant in males.