School of Medicine Publications and Presentations
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
3-2020
Abstract
Recent progress in deciphering mechanisms of human brain cortical folding leave unexplained whether spatially patterned genetic influences contribute to this folding. High-resolution in vivo brain MRI can be used to estimate genetic correlations (covariability due to shared genetic factors) in interregional cortical thickness, and biomechanical studies predict an influence of cortical thickness on folding patterns. However, progress has been hampered because shared genetic influences related to folding patterns likely operate at a scale that is much more local (cm) than that addressed in prior imaging studies. Here, we develop methodological approaches to examine local genetic influences on cortical thickness and apply these methods to two large, independent samples. We find that such influences are markedly heterogeneous in strength, and in some cortical areas are notably stronger in specific orientations relative to gyri or sulci. The overall, phenotypic local correlation has a significant basis in shared genetic factors and is highly symmetric between left and right cortical hemispheres. Furthermore, the degree of local cortical folding relates systematically with the strength of local correlations, which tends to be higher in gyral crests and lower in sulcal fundi. The relationship between folding and local correlations is stronger in primary sensorimotor areas and weaker in association areas such as prefrontal cortex, consistent with reduced genetic constraints on the structural topology of association cortex. Collectively, our results suggest that patterned genetic influences on cortical thickness, measurable at the scale of in vivo MRI, may be a causal factor in the development of cortical folding.
Recommended Citation
Alexander-Bloch, Aaron F., Armin Raznahan, Simon N. Vandekar, Jakob Seidlitz, Zhixin Lu, Samuel R. Mathias, Emma Knowles, et al. 2020. “Imaging Local Genetic Influences on Cortical Folding.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 117 (13): 7430–36. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1912064117.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
First Page
7430
Last Page
7436
Publication Title
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
DOI
10.1073/pnas.1912064117
Academic Level
faculty
Mentor/PI Department
Office of Human Genetics
Comments
Original published version available at https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1912064117