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Updated: Feb 3, 2026
Automated Segmentation of Cortical Grey Matter from T1-Weighted MRI Images
Published on: January 7, 2019
A negative association between brainstem pontine grey-matter volume, well-being and resilience in healthy twins
Justine M. Gatt1, Karen L.O. Burton1, Kylie M. Routledge1
1From the Neuroscience Research Australia, Randwick, Australia (Gatt, Burton, Schofield); the School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia (Gatt, Burton); the Brain Dynamics Centre, Westmead Institute for Medical Research, University of Sydney, Westmead, New South Wales, Australia (Routledge, Korgaonkar, Harris); the Queensland Institute of Medical Research, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia (Grasby); the Discipline of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, University of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia (Korgaonkar, Harris, Williams); the Sydney Translational Imaging Laboratory, Heart Research Institute, Charles Perkins Centre, University of Sydney, Australia, and the Department of Radiology, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Camperdown, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia (Grieve); the School of Medical Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia (Schofield); the School of Psychology, Flinders University, Bedford Park, South Australia, Australia, and Brain Clinics Australia, Unley, South Australia (Clark); the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford School of Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, California, United States of America (Williams); and the MIRECC VISN21, VA Palo Alto Health Care System, California, United States of America (Williams).
Background:
Associations between well-being, resilience to trauma and the volume of grey-matter regions involved in affective processing (e.g., threat/reward circuits) are largely unexplored, as are the roles of shared genetic and environmental factors derived from multivariate twin modelling.
Methods:
This study presents, to our knowledge, the first exploration of well-being and volumes of grey-matter regions involved in affective processing using a region-of-interest, voxel-based approach in 263 healthy adult twins (60% monozygotic pairs, 61% females, mean age 39.69 yr). To examine patterns for resilience (i.e., positive adaptation following adversity), we evaluated associations between the same brain regions and well-being in a trauma-exposed subgroup.
Results:
We found a correlated effect between increased well-being and reduced grey-matter volume of the pontine nuclei. This association was strongest for individuals with higher resilience to trauma. Multivariate twin modelling suggested that the common variance between the pons volume and well-being scores was due to environmental factors.
Limitations:
We used a cross-sectional sample; results need to be replicated longitudinally and in a larger sample.
Conclusion:
Associations with altered grey matter of the pontine nuclei suggest that basic sensory processes, such as arousal, startle, memory consolidation and/or emotional conditioning, may have a role in well-being and resilience.
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