Structural Genetic Variations Illuminate the Dimensional Landscape of Child Psychopathology and Cognition

What is it about?

There is increasing evidence that certain rare recurrent copy number variants (CNVs; deletions or duplications of stretches of DNA that can span one or multiple genes) are strong risk factors for developmental neuropsychiatric disorders and cognitive deficits. But much less is known about the impact of CNVs on the dimensional spectrum of psychopathology and cognition in the general population. In this issue, Sha et al. begin to fill this gap by examining the impact of CNVs in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD®) study, a prospective study of more than 11,000 US youth. Here, we discuss the main take-home messages, implications and future directions for the field.

Featured Image