Working memory develops from childhood through the late teens, getting progressively better over time. At age seven, children who will be diagnosed with schizophrenia ten or fifteen years later have normal working memory. But by age thirteen, their working memory has fallen well below where it should be at that stage of development. A key component of working memory is the pyramidal neurons of the prefrontal cortex, so called because the cell body of these neurons is shaped roughly like a triangle. In every other respect these cells are like other neurons, both structurally and functionally.
