Imaging genomics.
The recent completion of a working draft of the human genome sequence promises to provide unprecedented opportunities to explore the genetic basis of individual differences in complex behaviours and vulnerability to neuropsychiatric illness. Functional neuroimaging, because of its unique ability to assay information processing at the level of brain within individuals, provides a powerful approach to such functional genomics. Recent fMRI studies have established important physiological links between functional genetic polymorphisms and robust differences in information processing within distinct brain regions and circuits that have been linked to the manifestation of various disease states such as Alzheimer's disease, schizophrenia and anxiety disorders. Importantly, all of these biological relationships have been revealed in relatively small samples of healthy volunteers and in the absence of observable differences at the level of behaviour, underscoring the power of a direct assay of brain physiology like fMRI in exploring the functional impact of genetic variation.
Hariri
Ahmad R
AR
Clinical Brain Disorders Branch, Intramural Research Program, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA.
Weinberger
Daniel R
DR
D001057:Apolipoproteins E / Q000235:genetics; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology*; D001927:Brain Diseases / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology; D002352:Carrier Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D002394:Catechol O-Methyltransferase / Q000235:genetics; D023281:Genomics; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008562:Membrane Glycoproteins / Q000235:genetics; D026901:Membrane Transport Proteins; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D050486:Serotonin Plasma Membrane Transport Proteins
D001057:Apolipoproteins E; D002352:Carrier Proteins; D008562:Membrane Glycoproteins; D026901:Membrane Transport Proteins; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins; C493230:SLC6A4 protein, human; D050486:Serotonin Plasma Membrane Transport Proteins; D002394:Catechol O-Methyltransferase