To investigate whether sex-biased gene expression in mammalian brain is globally regulated or locally regulated in diverse brain structures, and to study the genomic organisation of brain-expressed sex-biased genes, we performed a large scale gene expression analysis of distinct brain regions in adult male and female mice.
However, the genetic principles of pleiotropy (each gene affects many traits) and polygenicity (many genes affect each trait) lead us to predict that generalist genes have their effects further upstream, creating genetic correlations among brain structures and functions, a prediction that supports a network view of brain structure and function.
Brain structures and brain circuits compute different components of cognitive processes [ 8].
Psychiatric research and neuroscience has made tremendous progress in exploring the proximate causes of psychopathology, that is, its underlying mechanisms (e.g., aberrant neurotransmission, abnormalities in brain structure and function, discovery of genes increasing the risk for dysfunction etc).
"It alerts physicians to the relationship between genes, brain structure, and behavior," a relationship that may one day become useful to clinicians.
In fact, recent studies are revealing that genes, environment, brain structure, and hormones all seem to have a mixed role in sexual orientation and preferences.
Experience alters brain structure, chemistry and gene expression to sculpture immature neural circuits into adult circuitry, she said.
The identified multimodal biomarkers could predict not only disease status but also cognitive function to help elucidate the biological pathway from gene to brain structure and function, and to cognition and disease.
A growing body of evidence suggests that biological factors such as genes, hormone levels, brain structure, and brain functioning influence the development and trajectory of conduct problems in youth.
In a step forward into the future of gene expression research, molecular biologists and neurobiologists have joined forces to map the genes that control brain structure and neural circuits.
