The Genetics of Cognition in Schizophrenia: Combining Mouse and Human Studies

Schizophrenia is a severe and chronic psychiatric disorder, identified by three clusters of symptoms with extensive variation between individuals, such that these symptoms are not always evident or identical in every case. Information on specific schizophrenia vulnerability genes keeps on being continuously updated depending on the sample size available and the ever updating technology. Notably, the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and its brain networks have been suggested as a crucial brain substrate of the abnormalities found in schizophrenia. Antipsychotic drugs are currently the mainstay of medication for schizophrenia and represent the most important treatment for patients suffering from this mental illness. Neuropsychological studies in patients with schizophrenia have consistently identified deficits in the performance of attentional set‐shifting paradigms such as the WCST and the CANTAB ID/ED. The genetic overlap between schizophrenia, autism, and intellectual disabilities illustrates the biologic overlap between these syndromes and the lawful age dependent transitions in their phenotypic expression.