Crossing Boundaries in Schizotypy Research: An Introduction to the Special Supplement

Abstract

For nearly 6 decades, the schizotypy construct has served as a conceptual guide for understanding the phenotypic and clinical variability associated with schizophrenia-spectrum vulnerability. Despite the impact of schizotypy on academic research, the public burden of schizophrenia-spectrum pathology has not diminished over time, and it remains poorly understood with no cures, few treatments, and heavy stigma from the lay public. Following on the success of the 2013 Lemanic Workshop on Schizotypy, the International Consortium on Schizotypy Research (ICSR) was formed to address these needs by accelerating scientific discovery of schizophrenia-spectrum pathology. The ICSR convened its 2017 meeting in Beijing China with the theme of "Crossing Borders". This included a focus on expanding schizotypy research across 5 domains across: Academic disciplinary borders (promoting brain and genetics/genomics research), clinical borders (promoting clinical and non-clinical applications), geographic borders (promoting cross-cultural research), laboratory borders (promoting "big" and "small" data collaborations), and methodology borders (promoting emotion, cognition and behavior research using novel methods). This special supplement provides the highlights from this meeting and related work, including 3 theoretical and position articles, 7 research articles, and 1 invited commentary.