TY - JOUR
T1 - Intermediate phenotypes in psychiatric disorders
AU - Rasetti, Roberta
AU - Weinberger, Daniel R.
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported by the Intramural Research Program of the National Institute of Mental Health , National Institutes of Health. We thank Venkata S. Mattay for helpful discussion.
PY - 2011/6
Y1 - 2011/6
N2 - The small effect size of most individual risk factors for psychiatric disorders likely reflects biological heterogeneity and diagnostic imprecision, which has encouraged genetic studies of intermediate biological phenotypes that are closer to the molecular effects of risk genes than are the clinical symptoms. Neuroimaging-based intermediate phenotypes have emerged as particularly promising because they map risk associated gene effects onto physiological processes in brain that are altered in patients and in their healthy relatives. Recent evidence using this approach has elucidated discrete, dissociable biological mechanisms of risk genes at the level of neural circuitries, and their related cognitive functions. This approach may greatly contribute to our understanding of the genetics and pathophysiology of psychiatric disorders.
AB - The small effect size of most individual risk factors for psychiatric disorders likely reflects biological heterogeneity and diagnostic imprecision, which has encouraged genetic studies of intermediate biological phenotypes that are closer to the molecular effects of risk genes than are the clinical symptoms. Neuroimaging-based intermediate phenotypes have emerged as particularly promising because they map risk associated gene effects onto physiological processes in brain that are altered in patients and in their healthy relatives. Recent evidence using this approach has elucidated discrete, dissociable biological mechanisms of risk genes at the level of neural circuitries, and their related cognitive functions. This approach may greatly contribute to our understanding of the genetics and pathophysiology of psychiatric disorders.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.gde.2011.02.003
DO - 10.1016/j.gde.2011.02.003
M3 - Review article
C2 - 21376566
AN - SCOPUS:79957625912
SN - 0959-437X
VL - 21
SP - 340
EP - 348
JO - Current Opinion in Genetics and Development
JF - Current Opinion in Genetics and Development
IS - 3
ER -