Researchers in Britain used the club drug ketamine ("Special K") in a recent animal study to help understand how schizophrenia affects part of the brain, Reuters reported Oct. 27.

The drug, which produces effects similar to the symptoms of schizophrenia, was given to rats to block NMDA receptors in the brain, preventing them from working properly. NMDA receptors are known to be involved in memory, and the researchers examined how ketamine disrupted the same electrical brain wave patterns in rats that malfunction in humans with schizophrenia.

Understanding how NMDA receptors go wrong on these particular cells and eventually disrupt normal brain wave patterns opens up new areas of research into schizophrenia, said Mark Cunningham, a neuroscientist at Newcastle University in Britain and the study's lead author.

"What we would like to do next is find out more about how these types of receptors work on these brain cells," Cunningham said. "Then we can think more about designing novel drugs to boost the activity of these receptors."

The findings also highlight the dangers of abusing ketamine, which is known to cause feelings of detachment, Cunningham added.

The study is slated to appear in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.