Human Cortical Thickness Organized into Genetically-determined Communities across Spatial Resolutions.

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Genetics
• Brain Imaging

Background:

• The cerebral cortex may be organized into anatomical genetic modules, with shared genetic influences via pleiotropy.
• These modules could represent novel phenotypes for large-scale gene discovery.

Purpose of the Study:

• Investigate the modular structure of the cerebral cortex using network analysis.
• Identify organizational principles of genetic influence on brain anatomy.

Main Methods:

• Network analysis of in vivo MRI data from extended pedigrees.
• Analysis of inter-regional genetic correlations and gene co-expression patterns.
• Computational modeling to explain observed genetic correlation patterns.

Main Results:

• Revealed a multiscale modular structure in the cerebral cortex, with overlapping modules across spatial scales.
• Identified two primary organizational principles: strong genetic correlation between homologous regions and between nearby regions within a hemisphere.
• Demonstrated a steep decline in genetic correlation with increasing anatomical distance within a hemisphere.

Conclusions:

• The complex network of genetic correlations in the cerebral cortex can be explained by simple organizational principles.
• Understanding these principles is crucial for developing mechanistic models of gene-brain anatomy interactions.
• This research provides a foundation for understanding how genes influence brain structure and mediate neuropsychiatric risk.