Transdiagnostic neuroimaging markers of psychiatric risk: a narrative review

Several decades of neuroimaging research in psychiatry have shed light on structural and functional neural abnormalities associated with individual psychiatric disorders. However, there is increasing evidence for substantial overlap in the patterns of neural dysfunction seen across disorders, suggesting that risk for psychiatric illness may be shared across diagnostic boundaries. In this narrative review, we first evaluate recent studies investigating the neural correlates of a general psychopathology factor, thought to reflect the shared variance across common mental health symptoms. We then link insights from this research to meta-analytic evidence for shared patterns of neural dysfunction across categorical psychiatric disorders. We conclude by providing an integrative account of vulnerability to mental illness that focuses on neurodevelopmental abnormalities in the context of brain connectivity.