Department of Psychology, Division of Molecular Neuroscience, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
Trends Cogn Sci. 2011 Sep;15(9):381-7. doi: 10.1016/j.tics.2011.07.005. Epub 2011 Aug 10.
Episodic memory is a polygenic behavioral trait with substantial heritability estimates. Despite its complexity, recent empirical evidence supports the notion that behavioral genetic studies of episodic memory might successfully identify trait-associated molecules and pathways. The development of high-throughput genotyping methods, of elaborated statistical analyses and of phenotypic assessment methods at the neural systems level will facilitate the reliable identification of novel memory-related genes. Importantly, a necessary crosstalk between behavioral genetic studies and investigation of causality by molecular genetic studies will ultimately pave the way towards the identification of biologically important, and hopefully druggable, genes and molecular pathways related to human episodic memory.
情景记忆是一种具有大量遗传力估计的多基因行为特征。尽管其复杂性很高，但最近的实证证据支持这样一种观点，即情景记忆的行为遗传学研究可能成功地识别出与特质相关的分子和途径。高通量基因分型方法、详细的统计分析以及神经系统水平的表型评估方法的发展将有助于可靠地识别新的与记忆相关的基因。重要的是，行为遗传学研究与分子遗传学研究因果关系调查之间的必要相互作用，最终将为识别与人类情景记忆相关的具有生物学意义且有希望成为药物靶标的基因和分子途径铺平道路。
