13 Apr 22. Featured Paper

Link to paper on Nature Neuroscience

Authors

Rachel M. Brouwer, Marieke Klein, Katrina L. Grasby, Hugo G. Schnack, Neda Jahanshad, Jalmar Teeuw, Sophia I. Thomopoulos, Emma Sprooten, Carol E. Franz, Nitin Gogtay, William S. Kremen, Matthew S. Panizzon, Loes M. Olde Loohuis, Christopher D. Whelan, Moji Aghajani, Clara Alloza, Dag Alnæs, Eric Artiges, Rosa Ayesa-Arriola, Gareth J. Barker, Mark E. Bastin, Elisabet Blok, Erlend Bøen, Isabella A. Breukelaar, Joanna K. Bright, Elizabeth E. L. Buimer, Robin Bülow, Dara M. Cannon, Simone Ciufolini, Nicolas A. Crossley, Christienne G. Damatac, Paola Dazzan, Casper L. de Mol, Sonja M. C. de Zwarte, Sylvane Desrivières, Covadonga M. Díaz-Caneja, Nhat Trung Doan, Katharina Dohm, Juliane H. Fröhner, Janik Goltermann, Antoine Grigis, Dominik Grotegerd, Laura K. M. Han, Mathew A. Harris, Catharina A. Hartman, Sarah J. Heany, Walter Heindel, Dirk J. Heslenfeld, Sarah Hohmann, Bernd Ittermann, Philip R. Jansen, Joost Janssen, Tianye Jia, Jiyang Jiang, Christiane Jockwitz, Temmuz Karali, Daniel Keeser, Martijn G. J. C. Koevoets, Rhoshel K. Lenroot, Berend Malchow, René C. W. Mandl, Vicente Medel, Susanne Meinert, Catherine A. Morgan, Thomas W. Mühleisen, Leila Nabulsi, Nils Opel, Víctor Ortiz-García de la Foz, Bronwyn J. Overs, Marie-Laure Paillère Martinot, Ronny Redlich, Tiago Reis Marques, Jonathan Repple, Gloria Roberts, Gennady V. Roshchupkin, Nikita Setiaman, Elena Shumskaya, Frederike Stein, Gustavo Sudre, Shun Takahashi, Anbupalam Thalamuthu, Diana Tordesillas-Gutiérrez, Aad van der Lugt, Neeltje E. M. van Haren, Joanna M. Wardlaw, Wei Wen, Henk-Jan Westeneng, Katharina Wittfeld, Alyssa H. Zhu, Andre Zugman, Nicola J. Armstrong, Gaia Bonfiglio, Janita Bralten, Shareefa Dalvie, Gail Davies, Marta Di Forti, Linda Ding, Gary Donohoe, Andreas J. Forstner, Javier Gonzalez-Peñas, Joao P. O. F. T. Guimaraes, Georg Homuth, Jouke-Jan Hottenga, Maria J. Knol, John B. J. Kwok, Stephanie Le Hellard, Karen A. Mather, Yuri Milaneschi, Derek W. Morris, Markus M. Nöthen, Sergi Papiol, Marcella Rietschel, Marcos L. Santoro, Vidar M. Steen, Jason L. Stein, Fabian Streit, Rick M. Tankard, Alexander Teumer, Dennis van ‘t Ent, Dennis van der Meer, Kristel R. van Eijk, Evangelos Vassos, Javier Vázquez-Bourgon, Stephanie H. Witt, the IMAGEN Consortium, Hieab H. H. Adams, Ingrid Agartz, David Ames, Katrin Amunts, Ole A. Andreassen, Celso Arango, Tobias Banaschewski, Bernhard T. Baune, Sintia I. Belangero, Arun L. W. Bokde, Dorret I. Boomsma, Rodrigo A. Bressan, Henry Brodaty, Jan K. Buitelaar, Wiepke Cahn, Svenja Caspers, Sven Cichon, Benedicto Crespo-Facorro, Simon R. Cox, Udo Dannlowski, Torbjørn Elvsåshagen, Thomas Espeseth, Peter G. Falkai, Simon E. Fisher, Herta Flor, Janice M. Fullerton, Hugh Garavan, Penny A. Gowland, Hans J. Grabe, Tim Hahn, Andreas Heinz, Manon Hillegers, Jacqueline Hoare, Pieter J. Hoekstra, Mohammad A. Ikram, Andrea P. Jackowski, Andreas Jansen, Erik G. Jönsson, Rene S. Kahn, Tilo Kircher, Mayuresh S. Korgaonkar, Axel Krug, Herve Lemaitre, Ulrik F. Malt, Jean-Luc Martinot, Colm McDonald, Philip B. Mitchell, Ryan L. Muetzel, Robin M. Murray, Frauke Nees, Igor Nenadić, Jaap Oosterlaan, Roel A. Ophoff, Pedro M. Pan, Brenda W. J. H. Penninx, Luise Poustka, Perminder S. Sachdev, Giovanni A. Salum, Peter R. Schofield, Gunter Schumann, Philip Shaw, Kang Sim, Michael N. Smolka, Dan J. Stein, Julian N. Trollor, Leonard H. van den Berg, Jan H. Veldink, Henrik Walter, Lars T. Westlye, Robert Whelan, Tonya White, Margaret J. Wright, Sarah E. Medland, Barbara Franke, Paul M. Thompson & Hilleke E. Hulshoff Pol

Abstract

Human brain structure changes throughout the lifespan.

Altered brain growth or rates of decline are implicated in a vast range of psychiatric, developmental and neurodegenerative diseases.

In this study, we identified common genetic variants that affect rates of brain growth or atrophy in what is, to our knowledge, the first genome-wide association meta-analysis of changes in brain morphology across the lifespan.

Longitudinal magnetic resonance imaging data from 15,640 individuals were used to compute rates of change for 15 brain structures.

The most robustly identified genes GPR139, DACH1 and APOE are associated with metabolic processes.

We demonstrate global genetic overlap with depression, schizophrenia, cognitive functioning, insomnia, height, body mass index and smoking.

Gene set findings implicate both early brain development and neurodegenerative processes in the rates of brain changes.

Identifying variants involved in structural brain changes may help to determine biological pathways underlying optimal and dysfunctional brain development and aging.

Keywords

• Brain
• Genetic variants
• Meta-analysis