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ABSTRACT: Background
Impairments in cognitive functions are common in patients suffering from psychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Cognitive traits have been proposed as useful for understanding the biological and genetic mechanisms implicated in cognitive function in healthy individuals and in the dysfunction observed in psychiatric disorders.Methods
Sets of genes associated with a range of cognitive functions often impaired in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder were generated from a genome-wide association study (GWAS) on a sample comprising 670 healthy Norwegian adults who were phenotyped for a broad battery of cognitive tests. These gene sets were then tested for enrichment of association in GWASs of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. The GWAS data was derived from three independent single-centre schizophrenia samples, three independent single-centre bipolar disorder samples, and the multi-centre schizophrenia and bipolar disorder samples from the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium.Results
The strongest enrichments were observed for visuospatial attention and verbal abilities sets in bipolar disorder. Delayed verbal memory was also enriched in one sample of bipolar disorder. For schizophrenia, the strongest evidence of enrichment was observed for the sets of genes associated with performance in a colour-word interference test and for sets associated with memory learning slope.Conclusions
Our results are consistent with the increasing evidence that cognitive functions share genetic factors with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Our data provides evidence that genetic studies using polygenic and pleiotropic models can be used to link specific cognitive functions with psychiatric disorders.
SUBMITTER: Fernandes CP
PROVIDER: S-EPMC3861303 | biostudies-literature | 2013
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Fernandes Carla P D CP Christoforou Andrea A Giddaluru Sudheer S Ersland Kari M KM Djurovic Srdjan S Mattheisen Manuel M Lundervold Astri J AJ Reinvang Ivar I Nöthen Markus M MM Rietschel Marcella M Ophoff Roel A RA Hofman Albert A Uitterlinden André G AG Werge Thomas T Cichon Sven S Espeseth Thomas T Andreassen Ole A OA Steen Vidar M VM Le Hellard Stephanie S
PloS one 20131212 12
<h4>Background</h4>Impairments in cognitive functions are common in patients suffering from psychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Cognitive traits have been proposed as useful for understanding the biological and genetic mechanisms implicated in cognitive function in healthy individuals and in the dysfunction observed in psychiatric disorders.<h4>Methods</h4>Sets of genes associated with a range of cognitive functions often impaired in schizophrenia and bipolar disor ...[more]