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Neurocognitive phenomics: examining the genetic basis of cognitive abilities

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 November 2012

G. Donohoe ,
I. J. Deary ,
D. C. Glahn ,
A. K. Malhotra  and
K. E. Burdick
G. Donohoe*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine and Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Republic of Ireland
I. J. Deary
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
D. C. Glahn
Affiliation:
Olin Neuropsychiatry Research Center, Institute of Living, and Department of Psychiatry, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
A. K. Malhotra
Affiliation:
The Zucker Hillside Hospital, Glen Oaks, NY, USA
K. E. Burdick
Affiliation:
Departments of Psychiatry and Neuroscience at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA
*
*Address for correspondence: G. Donohoe, DClinPsych, Ph.D., Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Republic of Ireland. (Email: [email protected])
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Abstract

Cognitive deficits are core to the disability associated with many psychiatric disorders. Both variation in cognition and psychiatric risk show substantial heritability, with overlapping genetic variants contributing to both. Unsurprisingly, therefore, these fields have been mutually beneficial: just as cognitive studies of psychiatric risk variants may identify genes involved in cognition, so too can genome-wide studies based on cognitive phenotypes lead to genes relevant to psychiatric aetiology. The purpose of this review is to consider the main issues involved in the phenotypic characterization of cognition, and to describe the challenges associated with the transition to genome-wide approaches. We conclude by describing the approaches currently being taken by the international consortia involving many investigators in the field internationally (e.g. Cognitive Genomics Consortium; COGENT) to overcome these challenges.

Keywords

CognitionendophenotypegeneticsGWASschizophrenia
Type
Review Article
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 43 , Issue 10 , October 2013 , pp. 2027 - 2036
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012 

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