This review highlights the important contributions of neuroimaging in understanding the role of genetics on brain development, and how genetics influences brain developmental trajectories. Future studies can be augmented by linking genetics and neuroimaging with biomarkers and cognitive neuroscience, in order to define more reliable endophenotypes. The emergence of multiple datasets also highlights several methodological issues that lead to difficulties in interpreting or comparing findings across studies. Some of these methodological issues include the selection of diverse human subject populations, the various neuroimaging acquisition parameters, differences in behavioral assessments, and the complex statistical comparisons. Resolving these issues and sharing of protocols across studies might lead to shared data resources that ultimately could provide a better understanding of normal brain development. Having a normative neuroscience database across the ages would provide a critically important foundation for elucidating how genes might influence brain disorders across the lifespan.
