Here, we focus on thalamic aspects of the 22q11.2 microdeletion, a CNV that confers one of the strongest genetic predictors of schizophrenia, and its mechanistic connection to several common gene variants identified in GWAS (Ripke et al., 2014) [e.g., DRD2, SERCA2 (encoded by the ATP2A gene) and CAV3.3 (encoded by the CACNA1I gene)]. Here, CACNA1I is linked to schizophrenia.