Imaging genetics of mood disorders

• Published in: NeuroImage (Orlando, Fla.) Vol. 53; no. 3; pp. 810 - 821
• Main Authors: Scharinger, Christian, Rabl, Ulrich, Sitte, Harald H., Pezawas, Lukas
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Inc 15.11.2010; Elsevier Limited
• Subjects: Amygdala; Anterior cingulate cortex; Behavior; Brain; Brain-derived neurotrophic factor; Diagnostic Imaging - methods; Emotion; Functional connectivity; Genetic Predisposition to Disease; Genetics; Genotype; Hippocampus; Humans; Imaging genetics; Major depressive disorder; Medical imaging; Mental depression; Mood disorders; Mood Disorders - diagnosis; Mood Disorders - genetics; Mortality; Neurosciences; NMR; Nuclear magnetic resonance; Orbitofrontal cortex; Phenotype–genotype; Studies; Ventromedial prefrontal cortex; Functional connectivity; Orbitofrontal cortex; Amygdala; Anterior cingulate cortex; Phenotype–genotype; Imaging genetics; Mood disorders; Genetics; Emotion; Ventromedial prefrontal cortex; Major depressive disorder; Hippocampus
• ISSN: 1053-8119; 1095-9572; 1095-9572
• DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2010.02.019

Mood disorders are highly heritable and have been linked to brain regions of emotion processing. Over the past few years, an enormous amount of imaging genetics studies has demonstrated the impact of risk genes on brain regions and systems of emotion processing in vivo in healthy subjects as well as in mood disorder patients. While sufficient evidence already exists for several monaminergic genes as well as for a few non-monoaminergic genes, such as brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in healthy subjects, many others only have been investigated in single studies so far. Apart from these studies, the present review also covers imaging genetics studies applying more complex genetic disease models of mood disorders, such as epistasis and gene–environment interactions, and their impact on brain systems of emotion processing. This review attempts to provide a comprehensive overview of the rapidly growing field of imaging genetics studies in mood disorder research.