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Alijanpourotaghsara A, Vessal A, Alijanpour A, Strelnikov D, Piroska M, Persely A, Jokkel Z, Szalontai L, Forgo B, Kozak LR, Bekesy-Szabo A, Maurovich-Horvat P, Tarnoki DL, Tarnoki AD. Morphometric Analysis of Neocortical and Infratentorial Structures: Genetic and Environmental Insights from a Twin Neuroanatomical Study. MEDICINA (KAUNAS, LITHUANIA) 2025; 61:261. [PMID: 40005379 PMCID: PMC11857582 DOI: 10.3390/medicina61020261] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/31/2024] [Revised: 01/24/2025] [Accepted: 01/28/2025] [Indexed: 02/27/2025]
Abstract
Background and Objective: Brain morphometry is shaped by a complex interplay of genetic and environmental factors, including physiological and neuropsychiatric conditions. These influences can vary across distinct brain regions, yet the precise contributions of genetics and environment to regional variation in healthy brains remain poorly understood. This study examines the heritability of specific brain structures to provide deeper insights into their development. Materials and Methods: We studied 118 healthy adult twins from the Hungarian Twin Registry using T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (T1W MRI) and the volBrain pipeline for structural measurements. Results: In all regions, monozygotic (MZ) twins showed a higher resemblance than dizygotic (DZ) twins in total brainstem and cerebellar volumes, with significant heritability (A: 90.5-92.6%) and minimal unique environmental effects (E: <1%). For supratentorial regions, regarding the total gray matter volume, all regions exhibited high heritability (A: 74.5-92.4%) and minimal environmental influence (E: <1.5%). In average cortical thickness analysis, the frontal lobe, temporal lobe, and pre-central gyrus were influenced by shared and unique environmental factors (C: 63-66.5%; E: 33.4-37%), whereas genetics were more prominent in the parietal lobe, occipital lobe, and post-central gyrus (A: 67.7-85%; E: 15-32.3%). Conclusions: Genetics strongly influence cortical gray matter volume in supratentorial regions (both total and regional), as well as the total brainstem volume and the total and cortical gray matter volumes of the cerebellum in infratentorial regions. This genetic influence extends to the average cortical thickness of the parietal lobe, post-central gyrus, and occipital lobe, while the frontal lobe, temporal lobe, and pre-central gyrus are more affected by environmental factors. These findings emphasize the importance of understanding region-specific genetic and environmental contributions to brain structure, which could guide personalized therapeutic and preventive strategies for neurological conditions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Amirreza Alijanpourotaghsara
- Medical Imaging Centre, Semmelweis University, 1082 Budapest, Hungary; (A.A.); (A.V.); (A.A.); (D.S.); (M.P.); (A.P.); (Z.J.); (L.S.); (L.R.K.); (A.B.-S.); (P.M.-H.); (D.L.T.)
| | - Arsalan Vessal
- Medical Imaging Centre, Semmelweis University, 1082 Budapest, Hungary; (A.A.); (A.V.); (A.A.); (D.S.); (M.P.); (A.P.); (Z.J.); (L.S.); (L.R.K.); (A.B.-S.); (P.M.-H.); (D.L.T.)
| | - Amirmasoud Alijanpour
- Medical Imaging Centre, Semmelweis University, 1082 Budapest, Hungary; (A.A.); (A.V.); (A.A.); (D.S.); (M.P.); (A.P.); (Z.J.); (L.S.); (L.R.K.); (A.B.-S.); (P.M.-H.); (D.L.T.)
| | - David Strelnikov
- Medical Imaging Centre, Semmelweis University, 1082 Budapest, Hungary; (A.A.); (A.V.); (A.A.); (D.S.); (M.P.); (A.P.); (Z.J.); (L.S.); (L.R.K.); (A.B.-S.); (P.M.-H.); (D.L.T.)
| | - Marton Piroska
- Medical Imaging Centre, Semmelweis University, 1082 Budapest, Hungary; (A.A.); (A.V.); (A.A.); (D.S.); (M.P.); (A.P.); (Z.J.); (L.S.); (L.R.K.); (A.B.-S.); (P.M.-H.); (D.L.T.)
| | - Aliz Persely
- Medical Imaging Centre, Semmelweis University, 1082 Budapest, Hungary; (A.A.); (A.V.); (A.A.); (D.S.); (M.P.); (A.P.); (Z.J.); (L.S.); (L.R.K.); (A.B.-S.); (P.M.-H.); (D.L.T.)
| | - Zsofia Jokkel
- Medical Imaging Centre, Semmelweis University, 1082 Budapest, Hungary; (A.A.); (A.V.); (A.A.); (D.S.); (M.P.); (A.P.); (Z.J.); (L.S.); (L.R.K.); (A.B.-S.); (P.M.-H.); (D.L.T.)
| | - Laszlo Szalontai
- Medical Imaging Centre, Semmelweis University, 1082 Budapest, Hungary; (A.A.); (A.V.); (A.A.); (D.S.); (M.P.); (A.P.); (Z.J.); (L.S.); (L.R.K.); (A.B.-S.); (P.M.-H.); (D.L.T.)
| | - Bianka Forgo
- Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, SE-171 77 Stockholm, Sweden;
- Department of Neuroradiology, Karolinska University Hospital, SE-171 77 Stockholm, Sweden
- Faculty of Medicine and Health, School of Medical Sciences, Örebro University, SE-701 82 Örebro, Sweden
| | - Lajos Rudolf Kozak
- Medical Imaging Centre, Semmelweis University, 1082 Budapest, Hungary; (A.A.); (A.V.); (A.A.); (D.S.); (M.P.); (A.P.); (Z.J.); (L.S.); (L.R.K.); (A.B.-S.); (P.M.-H.); (D.L.T.)
| | - Adam Bekesy-Szabo
- Medical Imaging Centre, Semmelweis University, 1082 Budapest, Hungary; (A.A.); (A.V.); (A.A.); (D.S.); (M.P.); (A.P.); (Z.J.); (L.S.); (L.R.K.); (A.B.-S.); (P.M.-H.); (D.L.T.)
| | - Pal Maurovich-Horvat
- Medical Imaging Centre, Semmelweis University, 1082 Budapest, Hungary; (A.A.); (A.V.); (A.A.); (D.S.); (M.P.); (A.P.); (Z.J.); (L.S.); (L.R.K.); (A.B.-S.); (P.M.-H.); (D.L.T.)
| | - David Laszlo Tarnoki
- Medical Imaging Centre, Semmelweis University, 1082 Budapest, Hungary; (A.A.); (A.V.); (A.A.); (D.S.); (M.P.); (A.P.); (Z.J.); (L.S.); (L.R.K.); (A.B.-S.); (P.M.-H.); (D.L.T.)
| | - Adam Domonkos Tarnoki
- Medical Imaging Centre, Semmelweis University, 1082 Budapest, Hungary; (A.A.); (A.V.); (A.A.); (D.S.); (M.P.); (A.P.); (Z.J.); (L.S.); (L.R.K.); (A.B.-S.); (P.M.-H.); (D.L.T.)
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van Drunen L, Dobbelaar S, Crone EA, Wierenga LM. Genetic and environmental influences on structural brain development from childhood to adolescence: A longitudinal twin study on cortical thickness, surface area, and subcortical volume. Dev Cogn Neurosci 2024; 68:101407. [PMID: 38870602 PMCID: PMC11225697 DOI: 10.1016/j.dcn.2024.101407] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/19/2024] [Revised: 06/10/2024] [Accepted: 06/10/2024] [Indexed: 06/15/2024] Open
Abstract
The human brain undergoes structural development from childhood to adolescence, with specific regions in the sensorimotor, social, and affective networks continuing to grow into adulthood. While genetic and environmental factors contribute to individual differences in these brain trajectories, the extent remains understudied. Our longitudinal study, utilizing up to three biennial MRI scans (n=485), aimed to assess the genetic and environmental effects on brain structure (age 7) and development (ages 7-14) in these regions. Heritability estimates varied across brain regions, with all regions showing genetic influence (ranging from 18 % to 59 %) with additional shared environmental factors affecting the primary motor cortex (30 %), somatosensory cortex (35 %), DLPFC (5 %), TPJ (17 %), STS (17 %), precuneus (10 %), hippocampus (22 %), amygdala (5 %), and nucleus accumbens (10 %). Surface area was more genetically driven (38 %) than cortical thickness (14 %). Longitudinal brain changes were primarily driven by genetics (ranging from 1 % to 29 %), though shared environment factors (additionally) influenced the somatosensory cortex (11 %), DLPFC (7 %), cerebellum (28 %), TPJ (16 %), STS (20 %), and hippocampus (17 %). These findings highlight the importance of further investigating brain-behavior associations and the influence of enriched and deprived environments from childhood to adolescence. Ultimately, our study can provide insights for interventions aimed at supporting children's development.
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Affiliation(s)
- L van Drunen
- Leiden Consortium of Individual Development (L-CID), the Netherlands; Erasmus University Rotterdam, Social and Behavioral Sciences, the Netherlands; Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition (LIBC), the Netherlands; Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, the Netherlands.
| | - S Dobbelaar
- Leiden Consortium of Individual Development (L-CID), the Netherlands; Erasmus University Rotterdam, Social and Behavioral Sciences, the Netherlands; Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition (LIBC), the Netherlands; Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, the Netherlands
| | - E A Crone
- Leiden Consortium of Individual Development (L-CID), the Netherlands; Erasmus University Rotterdam, Social and Behavioral Sciences, the Netherlands; Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition (LIBC), the Netherlands
| | - L M Wierenga
- Leiden Consortium of Individual Development (L-CID), the Netherlands; Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition (LIBC), the Netherlands; Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, the Netherlands
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Wu X, Zhang Y, Xue M, Li J, Li X, Cui Z, Gao JH, Yang G. Heritability of functional gradients in the human subcortico-cortical connectivity. Commun Biol 2024; 7:854. [PMID: 38997510 PMCID: PMC11245549 DOI: 10.1038/s42003-024-06551-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/23/2023] [Accepted: 07/04/2024] [Indexed: 07/14/2024] Open
Abstract
The human subcortex plays a pivotal role in cognition and is widely implicated in the pathophysiology of many psychiatric disorders. However, the heritability of functional gradients based on subcortico-cortical functional connectivity remains elusive. Here, leveraging twin functional MRI (fMRI) data from both the Human Connectome Project (n = 1023) and the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study (n = 936) datasets, we construct large-scale subcortical functional gradients and delineate an increased principal functional gradient pattern from unimodal sensory/motor networks to transmodal association networks. We observed that this principal functional gradient is heritable, and the strength of heritability exhibits a heterogeneous pattern along a hierarchical unimodal-transmodal axis in subcortex for both young adults and children. Furthermore, employing a machine learning framework, we show that this heterogeneous pattern of the principal functional gradient in subcortex can accurately discern the relationship between monozygotic twin pairs and dizygotic twin pairs with an accuracy of 76.2% (P < 0.001). The heritability of functional gradients is associated with the anatomical myelin proxied by MRI-derived T1-weighted/T2-weighted (T1w/T2w) ratio mapping in subcortex. This study provides new insights into the biological basis of subcortical functional hierarchy by revealing the structural and genetic properties of the subcortical functional gradients.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xinyu Wu
- Advanced Research Institute of Multidisciplinary Sciences, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, China
| | - Yu Zhang
- Advanced Research Institute of Multidisciplinary Sciences, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, China
| | - Mufan Xue
- Advanced Research Institute of Multidisciplinary Sciences, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, China
| | - Jinlong Li
- School of Computer Science and Technology, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, China
| | - Xuesong Li
- School of Computer Science and Technology, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, China
| | - Zaixu Cui
- Chinese Institute for Brain Research, Beijing, China
| | - Jia-Hong Gao
- Beijing City Key Lab for Medical Physics and Engineering, Institution of Heavy Ion Physics, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing, China.
- Center for MRI Research, Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, Peking University, Beijing, China.
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Peking University, Beijing, China.
- Institute of Artificial Intelligence, Hefei Comprehensive National Science Center, Hefei, China.
| | - Guoyuan Yang
- Advanced Research Institute of Multidisciplinary Sciences, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, China.
- School of Medical Technology, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, China.
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Panoyan MA, Shi Y, Abbatangelo CL, Adler N, Moo-Choy A, Parra EJ, Polimanti R, Hu P, Wendt FR. Exome-wide tandem repeats confer large effects on subcortical volumes in UK Biobank participants. MEDRXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR HEALTH SCIENCES 2023:2023.12.11.23299818. [PMID: 38168307 PMCID: PMC10760277 DOI: 10.1101/2023.12.11.23299818] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/05/2024]
Abstract
The human subcortex is involved in memory and cognition. Structural and functional changes in subcortical regions is implicated in psychiatric conditions. We performed an association study of subcortical volumes using 15,941 tandem repeats (TRs) derived from whole exome sequencing (WES) data in 16,527 unrelated European ancestry participants. We identified 17 loci, most of which were associated with accumbens volume, and nine of which had fine-mapping probability supporting their causal effect on subcortical volume independent of surrounding variation. The most significant association involved NTN1 -[GCGG] N and increased accumbens volume (β=5.93, P=8.16x10 -9 ). Three exonic TRs had large effects on thalamus volume ( LAT2 -[CATC] N β=-949, P=3.84x10 -6 and SLC39A4 -[CAG] N β=-1599, P=2.42x10 -8 ) and pallidum volume ( MCM2 -[AGG] N β=-404.9, P=147x10 -7 ). These genetic effects were consistent measurements of per-repeat expansion/contraction effects on organism fitness. With 3-dimensional modeling, we reinforced these effects to show that the expanded and contracted LAT2 -[CATC] N repeat causes a frameshift mutation that prevents appropriate protein folding. These TRs also exhibited independent effects on several psychiatric symptoms, including LAT2 -[CATC] N and the tiredness/low energy symptom of depression (β=0.340, P=0.003). These findings link genetic variation to tractable biology in the brain and relevant psychiatric symptoms. We also chart one pathway for TR prioritization in future complex trait genetic studies.
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