Imaging Genetics: Translating Genetic Association Into Neural Mechanisms of Illness

The discovery of statistical association of genes with complex behavioral disorders such as autism and schizophrenia raises important new challenges for understanding the mechanisms in brain of these statistical relationships. One approach that has emerged over the past decade as a strategy to bridge this gap involves the application of neuroimaging to map gene effects in brain.  This talk will describe the principles and some of the practices that characterize this novel strategy, including effects of several potential psychosis susceptibility genes in brain, such as CACNA1, GAD1 and GRM3, and approaches for understanding their biologic interactions.