Imaging genetics

Imaging genetics refers to the use of anatomical or physiological imaging technologies as phenotypic assays to evaluate genetic variation. Scientists that first used the term imaging genetics were interested in how genes influence psychopathology and used functional neuroimaging to investigate genes that are expressed in the brain (neuroimaging genetics).[1]

Imaging genetics uses research approaches in which genetic information and fMRI data in the same subjects are combined to define neuro-mechanisms linked to genetic variation.[2] With the images and genetic information, it can be determined how individual differences in single nucleotide polymorphisms, or SNPs, lead to differences in brain wiring structure, and intellectual function.[3] Imaging genetics allows the direct observation of the link between genes and brain activity in which the overall idea is that common variants in SNPs lead to common diseases.[4] A neuroimaging phenotype is attractive because it is closer to the biology of genetic function than illnesses or cognitive phenotypes.[5]

  1. ^ Hariri, A. R.; Drabant, E.M.; Weinberger, D. R. (May 2006). "Imaging genetics: Perspectives from studies of genetically driven variation in serotonin function and corticolimbic affective processing". Biological Psychiatry. 59 (10): 888–897. doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2005.11.005. PMID 16442081. S2CID 22972473.
  2. ^ Hariri; Weinberger (2003). "Imaging Genomics". British Medical Bulletin. 65: 259–270. doi:10.1093/bmb/65.1.259. PMID 12697630.
  3. ^ Thompson (2012). "Archived copy". Imaging Genetics. Archived from the original on 2012-04-08. Retrieved 2012-12-11.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  4. ^ Chi (2009). "Hit or Miss?". Nature. 461 (8): 712–714. doi:10.1038/461712a. PMID 19812647.
  5. ^ Meyer-Lindenberg (2012). "The Future of fMRI and Genetics Research". NeuroImage. 62 (2): 1286–1292. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2011.10.063. PMID 22051224. S2CID 214038.