Circuitry-Based Human Neuroanatomy for the Next Generation in Psychiatry and Neuroscience.

Abstract

the underlying neurosciences in the very near future. In psychiatry, interest in brain functions and the underlying neurosciences is growing among clinicians, and some of the training programs in psychiatry have integrated learning modules for most current neurosciences into their components [e.g., 9–11 ; for model curricula with an evaluation system, see 12 ]. Some of them of course include human neuroanatomy, a structural framework for the nervous system of humans [12–14] . Psychiatry, traditionally and to this day, uses subjective observational diagnoses of symptoms to categorize people who suffer from a psychiatric illness into a particular disorder entity (e.g., the DSM-5 [15] ). In these situations, it is not necessarily crucial to identify perturbations or to localize them to specific anatomical locations in the brain in order to explain their illness, behavioral phenotypes, and possible therapeutic strategies. However, today, more and more imaging studies focus on functional aspects and attempt to link the brain circuitry with functional changes and psychiatric disorders, introducing more circuitry-based approaches and linking psychiatry with the underlying neurocircuitry [16–18] ( Fig. 1 ). Recently, a dimensional approach (e.g., RDoC) has been introduced into psychiatry, in which several behavioral domains that are associated with specific circuitries have We are experiencing a very exciting time in neuroscience. Imaging studies through functional measurements such as fMRI have pointed to activities in brain regions in humans that are linked to behavioral outcomes [e.g., 1 ], far better and more precisely than Broca did in identifying the brain region responsible for language [2] . Several seminal papers have emerged as a result of large collaborative studies that establish the fine details of structures in the human brain [3] , more detailed than Brodmann did in his classic work [4] , and the current brain initiatives in the USA, Japan, and other countries are attempting to obtain comprehensive connectome maps of the human and nonhuman primate brain [5] . Gene expression profiles for each brain area, as well as individual cell populations, are being annotated, information that can be utilized to understand brain connectivity even at the cellular level in a developmental trajectory (allenbrainatlas.com [6] ). Human genetic and genomic analyses have identified vast numbers of genes that are implicated in psychiatric disorders in humans, many of which overlap with genes expressed in certain cortical layers and are important for brain development [7, 8] . This wave of new information and technology offers great hope that we may at last be able to treat patients who suffer from devastating neurological and psychiatric disorders by understanding Received: January 17, 2017 Accepted: July 14, 2017 Published online: September 7, 2017