Sakeena Fatima, a third-year medical student at the Wayne State University School of Medicine, was selected to present research at the International Congress of Schizophrenia Research, to be held March 24-28 in San Diego.

Fatima will present "Functional hyper-engagement of the corpus callosum in schizophrenia during visuo-motor processing" in an oral session scheduled for March 27.

"My project assessed brain matter connections in white matter in schizophrenia patients. My results showed that in order for schizophrenia patients to complete a simple visuo-motor task -- seeing a light flash and pushing a button -- it required more brain activity," she said. "This project interested me because it studies the most complex organ, the brain, regarding a disease that we know very little about. Learning about the dysfunction schizophrenia patients suffer from can, maybe, help provide better treatment opportunities in the future."

Fatima is grateful for the opportunity to present the project, and thankful for the support and guidance provided by her mentor, Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences and Brain Imaging Research Division Co-Director Vaibhav Diwadkar, Ph.D.

"Wayne State's School of Medicine is fortunate to attract medical students of Sakeena's caliber. She has invested an incredible amount of intellectual energy in her research, and the invitation to present in an oral session at the preeminent international meeting for schizophrenia-related research is a reflection of the esteem in which established researchers in the field hold her submitted work," Dr. Diwadkar said. "For her to represent WSU in this way, at an international forum of this standard, is a reflection of our school's overall excellence. She continues the excellent tradition of medical student-led research emanating from the department's Brain Imaging Research Division, and is highly deserving of this accolade."