Decoding Advances in Psychiatric Genetics: A Focus on Neural Circuits in Rodent Models

Abstract

Appropriately powered genome-wide association studies combined with deep-sequencing technologies offer the prospect of real progress in revealing the complex biological underpinnings of schizophrenia and other psychiatric disorders. Meanwhile, recent developments in genome engineering, including CRISPR, constitute better tools to move forward with investigating these genetic leads. This review aims to assess how these advances can inform the development of animal models for psychiatric disease, with a focus on schizophrenia and in vivo electrophysiological circuit-level measures with high potential as disease biomarkers.

Keywords: Animal model; CRISPR; Genetics; Neurophysiology; Schizophrenia.