'Without enough pathways, the information takes much longer to travel between neurons and much of it will never arrive,' said Peter Penzes, senior study author.

'This discovery opens a new direction for treating the devastating cognitive symptoms of schizophrenia,' Penzes said.

'There is currently no treatment for that. It suggests that if you can stimulate and amplify the activity of the protein kalirin that remains in the brain, perhaps we can help the symptoms,' he said.

These findings were published in a recent issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.