Two of the transcription factors that were identified here to be specific for thalamic subregions have been associated with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and autism in genome-wide association studies: TCF7L2 (Alkelai et al. 2012; Iossifov et al. 2014; Winham et al. 2014) and ZNF804A (Consortium SWGotPG 2014; Williams et al. 2011a, b; O’Donovan et al. 2008). This evidence concerns the gene TCF7L2 and bipolar disorder.