Ontological Realism for the Research Domain Criteria for Mental Disorders.

Journal: Studies in health technology and informatics
PMID: 28423829

Abstract

At the heart of the Research Domain Criteria for Mental Disorders is a matrix in which functional aspects of behavior are related to genotypic and (endo-)phenotypic research findings, and the various techniques through which they can been observed. The matrix is work in progress. As such it currently suffers from several shortcomings, the resolution of which, we contend, are essential to success of NIMH's goal of fostering translational science on mental disorders. Using well-established criteria for assessing the terminological and ontological quality of biomedical representations we identified the major problems to be (1) the abundant presence of terms that lack face value, (2) the absence of what the exact nature of the represented relationships are, and (3) referential imprecision with respect to the intended granularity of what the terms denote. We propose to eliminate these shortcomings by resorting to definitions and formal representations under the umbrella of Ontological Realism as they already have been developed in the areas of mental health, anatomy and biological functions.

Authors

  • Werner Ceusters
    Department of Biomedical Informatics, University at Buffalo, NY, USA.
  • Mark Jensen
    University at Buffalo, Buffalo, New York, United States of America.
  • Alexander D Diehl
    Molecular Biology and Biochemistry Department, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC V5A 1S6, Canada, Terry Fox Laboratory, British Columbia Cancer Agency, Vancouver, BC V5Z 1L3, Canada, Department of Neurology, University at Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Buffalo, NY 14203, USA, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA 98109, USA, Institute for Immunity, Transplantation and Infection, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305, USA, National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA, Center for Human Immunology, Autoimmunity and Inflammation, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA, School of Dental Medicine, University at Buffalo, NY 14214-8006, USA, J. Craig Venter Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA, Department of Pathology, University of California, San Diego, CA 92093, USA.

Keywords

External Resources

Popular Topics
Recent Journals