Psychotic disorders, such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, are increasingly conceptualised as neurodevelopmental conditions distributed along a continuum, yet their biological and evolutionary foundations remain insufficiently characterized and integrated across levels of analysis. In particular, understanding how developmental processes link genetic variation, brain structure, and cognitive outcomes—and whether these mechanisms differ by sex—remains a critical gap in current psychiatric research.

This project addresses this challenge through a developmental–morphological framework that conceptualizes brain and facial shape variation as biomarkers of neurodevelopmental instability. Building on four empirical studies, it integrates geometric morphometrics of hippocampal and facial morphology with genomic variability and cognitive performance, using multivariate cross-level modelling. By treating morphology not merely as a correlate of diagnosis but as a marker of developmental processes, my project aims to characterize the biological heterogeneity underlying psychotic disorders.