Imaging genetics approaches to identify mechanisms in severe mental illness

摘要

Schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and major depressive disorders are heritable serious mental illnesses (SMI). What does this heritability mean? What are the underlying mechanisms? Large genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified both shared and unique genetic risk variants for these disorders; however, causal risk variants, their molecular mechanisms, and their effects on brain circuitry are mostly unknown. Targeted, possibly individualized, therapies addressing underlying mechanisms offer the promise of improved functioning and well-being for patients. The study of the effects of the CACNA1C gene on episodic memory-associated neural circuitry by Erk et al. (1) provides a noteworthy use of the imaging-genetics approach to aid in our understanding of biological mechanisms underlying SMI. Typically, the imaging-genetics approach refers to the use of structural or functional imaging data to evaluate genetic variation or more infrequently, the use of imaging data to discover genes related to disorders or symptoms.