Frontier Research in the Study of Risk Factors for Neurodevelopmental Disorders

Dear Colleagues,

When considering multifactorial disorders, neurodevelopmental phenotypes are among the most challenging to disentangle. Despite the considerable diagnostic evolution in the past decade, we are still facing limits in our understanding of how perturbations in neuronal circuits affect human communication, social skills, intelligence, language, and motor coordination, either separately or even in concert; autism spectrum disorder is often characterized by intellectual disability while attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder is a common comorbidity of tic disorders or specific learning disorder.

A major driving force in the scientific research of neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs) is to develop improved tools to better manage these phenotypes separately or by targeting an underlying, common etiopathological background. To do so, however, it is imperative that we identify novel—or better comprehend already known or suspected—risk factors for NDDs. Thus, this Special Issue of Brain Sciences wishes to present readers with the recent advancements in the study of hereditary (genetic), biological (epigenetic, molecular, metabolic), neurological, cognitive, linguistic, and environmental exposures as potential risk factors. Apart from understanding how each risk factor may individually contribute in shaping a neurodevelopmental phenotype, a great amount of effort has recently concentrated on looking at the intersection of phenotypes (i.e., cross-disorder analyses) or across disciplines (i.e., neuroimaging genetics, brain–microbiome interaction). Results from large international and multidisciplinary consortia and data meta- and mega-analyses are rapidly emerging, holding great promise for identifying susceptibility factors and shedding light onto the complex pathophysiology of these disorders.

We thus welcome original papers, case reports, and short communications on potential risk factors for NDDs that provide clues to the cellular/molecular mechanisms in which they might interfere with. Authors are also invited to contribute expert reviews presenting current knowledge in the field while critically commenting on scientific questions that remain open. Finally, we encourage reports from large-scale collaborative studies with the aim of highlighting the challenges and, most importantly, the impact of such efforts in collectively promoting our understanding of neurodevelopmental phenotypes.

Dr. Marianthi Georgitsi
Guest Editor

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