About this Research Topic
The endophenotypes contribute to discriminate in complex diseases such as mental disorders or psychopathology, molecular pathways underlying genetic effects that allow us to recognize specific susceptibility patterns. Characterizing neurocognitive endophenotypes of mental illnesses could be useful for identifying at-risk individuals, increasing early diagnosis, improving disease subtyping, and proposing therapeutic strategies to reduce the negative effects of the symptoms, in addition to serving as a scientific basis to unravel the physiopathology of the disease. However, a standardized algorithm is not usually used to determine cognitive endophenotypes. In this regard, neurocognitive findings and their potential as candidate endophenotypes, constitute at the moment a novel bet in the clinical refinement of psychopathological or mental disorders.
It is well documented that there are neurocognitive deficits in patients with mental illnesses, such as bipolar disorder or schizophrenia, as well as in their first-degree relatives. For this, some of these deficits have been presented as a cognitive endophenotype of these diseases. However, there are still discrepancies in the results on what can be considered a stable cognitive endophenotype and in the criteria or procedures used to identify the cognitive endophenotype profile of a specific mental illness. That is why we consider that there is a need for the use in future research of a standardized method such as MICEmi (Correa-Ghisays et al, 2022), which provides a defined and clear neuroscientific support for cognitive endophenotypic profiling of mental illnesses.
The objective of this topic is to promote research on cognitive deficits in severe mental illnesses, providing standardized scientific support to previous and new discoveries, that allows establishing a definitive endophenotypic profile that can in turn be included in the diagnostic profile of said diseases. As a promising way to better understand the psychopathology of mental illnesses, we propose the research field of neurocognition in terms of clinically associated cognitive deficits. The articles presented in this section will represent contributions to knowledge related to the interaction between cognitive neuropsychology, clinical psychology, and brain sciences, applied to human psychopathology.
Original articles or reviews that unify the previous findings and that use the MICEmi method or that include the selection criteria of cognitive endophenotypes suggested in it are welcomed.
Topics covered by this section include, but are not limited to:
• Cognitive endophenotypes
• Cognitive deficits
• Severe mental illness
• Bipolar disorder
• Schizophrenia
It is well documented that there are neurocognitive deficits in patients with mental illnesses, such as bipolar disorder or schizophrenia, as well as in their first-degree relatives. For this, some of these deficits have been presented as a cognitive endophenotype of these diseases. However, there are still discrepancies in the results on what can be considered a stable cognitive endophenotype and in the criteria or procedures used to identify the cognitive endophenotype profile of a specific mental illness. That is why we consider that there is a need for the use in future research of a standardized method such as MICEmi (Correa-Ghisays et al, 2022), which provides a defined and clear neuroscientific support for cognitive endophenotypic profiling of mental illnesses.
The objective of this topic is to promote research on cognitive deficits in severe mental illnesses, providing standardized scientific support to previous and new discoveries, that allows establishing a definitive endophenotypic profile that can in turn be included in the diagnostic profile of said diseases. As a promising way to better understand the psychopathology of mental illnesses, we propose the research field of neurocognition in terms of clinically associated cognitive deficits. The articles presented in this section will represent contributions to knowledge related to the interaction between cognitive neuropsychology, clinical psychology, and brain sciences, applied to human psychopathology.
Original articles or reviews that unify the previous findings and that use the MICEmi method or that include the selection criteria of cognitive endophenotypes suggested in it are welcomed.
Topics covered by this section include, but are not limited to:
• Cognitive endophenotypes
• Cognitive deficits
• Severe mental illness
• Bipolar disorder
• Schizophrenia
Keywords: endophenotypes, cognitive, schizophrenia, bipolar disorders, severe mental illnesses
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