Analysis of the expression pattern of the schizophrenia-risk and intellectual disability gene TCF4 in the developing and adult brain suggests a role in development and plasticity of cortical and hippocampal neurons.

This study did not test a therapy or measure patient function, so it cannot change treatment choices. The patient MRI findings come from two girls with Pitt-Hopkins syndrome, so they describe cases rather than a general pattern. The structural deficits were measured in mice with reduced Tcf4 dosage, not in people, and the paper does not report how these anatomy findings relate to speech or motor skills. Species comparison relies on public mRNA datasets rather than the same human and monkey brains analysed by immunohistochemistry in this study. The supplied text reports significance but does not give actual cortical thickness or dentate gyrus volume values for each group.

Funded by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Interdisziplinäres Zentrum für Klinische Forschung Erlangen, and Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft. The supplied text does not state author conflicts of interest or sponsor role in design or writing.

Do not read the mouse brain structure findings or the two patient MRIs as evidence that any therapy works. The study did not test treatment, and the patient data are only two cases.