Психологические и молекулярно-генетические корреляты шизотипии в общей популяции

Abstract

For a long time, schizotypy was regarded as a manifestation of a genetic predisposition to schizophrenia. However, accumulated data suggest a complex, heterogeneous genetic etio­logy of schizotypal traits. This study is intended to answer the question of whether psychometric schizotypy should be further applied to the study and prevention of schizophrenia and to help provide care for individuals with high schizotypal severity, as the latter is often coupled with various signs of maladaptation. To explore the etiology of schizotypy, in this study the authors assessed the relations between cognitive & perceptual, paranoid, interpersonal and disorganizational factors in schizotypy and personality (n = 1,115), motivational (n = 645), cognitive processes (n = 557) and polygenic risk scores (PRS) of schizophrenia and schizotypy-related psychological traits (n = 417). The researchers used regression and network analyses. The study demonstrated that the severity of schizotypal traits does not correlate with the genetic burden of schizophrenia, but to a certain extent is associated to the polygenic predisposition to neuroticism. The latter could apparently influence schizotypal traits both directly and through the response set. However, the anxiety traits themselves do not mediate the relation between polygenic scores of neuroticism and schizotypal traits. Together with the source data, findings of this study point to the need to improve schizotypy assessment tools by introducing validity scales, and to adopt a genetically determined tendency to high neuroticism as a source of schizotypy in the general population, which requires further in-depth investigation.