title: New statistical approaches exploit the polygenic architecture of schizophrenia--implications for the underlying neurobiology.
abstract: Schizophrenia is a complex disorder with high heritability. Recent findings from several large genetic studies suggest a large number of risk variants are involved (i.e. schizophrenia is a polygenic disorder) and analytic approaches could be tailored for this scenario. Novel statistical approaches for analyzing GWAS data have recently been developed to be more sensitive to polygenic traits. These approaches have provided intriguing new insights into neurobiological pathways and support for the involvement of regulatory mechanisms, neurotransmission (glutamate, dopamine, GABA), and immune and neurodevelopmental pathways. Integrating the emerging statistical genetics evidence with sound neurobiological experiments will be a crucial, and challenging, next step in deciphering the specific disease mechanisms of schizophrenia.
authors.affiliation: Multimodal Imaging Laboratory, UC San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA; Center for Human Development, UC San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA; Kavli Institute for Brain and Mind, UC San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA; Department of Cognitive Science, UC San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Andrew J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Schork
authors.affiliation: Multimodal Imaging Laboratory, UC San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA; NORMENT, KG Jebsen Centre for Psychosis Research, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway; Division of Mental Health and Addiction, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway; Department of Neuroscience, UC San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Yunpeng
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Multimodal Imaging Laboratory, UC San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA; Department of Psychiatry, UC San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Wesley K
authors.initials: WK
authors.lastname: Thompson
authors.affiliation: Multimodal Imaging Laboratory, UC San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA; Department of Neuroscience, UC San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA; Department of Psychiatry, UC San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA; Department of Radiology, UC San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA. Electronic address: andersmdale@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Anders M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Dale
authors.affiliation: NORMENT, KG Jebsen Centre for Psychosis Research, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway; Division of Mental Health and Addiction, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway. Electronic address: o.a.andreassen@medisin.uio.no.
authors.forename: Ole A
authors.initials: OA
authors.lastname: Andreassen
mesh_terms: D053263:Gene Regulatory Networks / Q000235:genetics; D055106:Genome-Wide Association Study; D006801:Humans; D015810:Linkage Disequilibrium; D020412:Multifactorial Inheritance / Q000235:genetics*; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000235:genetics*; D013223:Statistics as Topic