GENETICS & NEUROSCIENCE (P GEJMAN, SECTION EDITOR) Genome-Wide Studies of Specific Language Impairment

# The Author(s) 2014. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com Abstract Specific language impairment (SLI) is a multifac-torial neurodevelopmental disorder which occurs unexpected-ly and without an obvious cause. Over a decade of research suggests that SLI is highly heritable. Several genes and loci have already been implicated in SLI through linkage and targeted association methods. Recently, genome-wide associ-ation studies (GWAS) of SLI and language traits in the general population have been reported and, consequently, new candi-date genes have been identified. This review aims to summa-rise the literature concerning genome-wide studies of SLI. In addition, this review highlights the methodologies that have been used to research the genetics of SLI to date, and also considers the current, and future, contributions that GWAS can offer