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A Twin Study of Intracerebral Volumetric Relationships

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Abstract

Using high resolution magnetic resonance imaging data, we examined the interrelationships between eight cerebral lobar volumetric measures via both exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses in a large sample (N = 484) of pediatric twins and singletons. These analyses suggest the presence of strong genetic correlations between cerebral structures, particularly between regions of like tissue type or in spatial proximity. Structural modeling estimated that most of the variance in all structures is associated with highly correlated lobar latent factors, with differences in genetic covariance and heritability driven by a common genetic factor that influenced gray and white matter differently. Reanalysis including total brain volume as a covariate dramatically reduced the total residual variance and disproportionately influenced the additive genetic variance in all regions of interest.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the intramural research program of the NIH as well as NIH grants MH-65322, MH-20030, and DA-18673.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics, Virginia Commonwealth University, 800 East Leigh Street, suite 100, PO Box 980003, Richmond, VA, 23298-0003, USA

    J. Eric Schmitt, Kenneth S. Kendler & Michael C. Neale

  2. Pediatric Imaging Unit, Child Psychiatry Branch, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, MD, USA

    Gregory L. Wallace, Rhoshel K. Lenroot, Dede Greenstein, Liv Clasen & Jay N. Giedd

  3. Department of Psychology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    Sarah E. Ordaz

Authors
  1. J. Eric Schmitt
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  2. Gregory L. Wallace
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  3. Rhoshel K. Lenroot
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  4. Sarah E. Ordaz
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  5. Dede Greenstein
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  6. Liv Clasen
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  7. Kenneth S. Kendler
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  8. Michael C. Neale
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  9. Jay N. Giedd
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Correspondence to J. Eric Schmitt.

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Edited by Kristen Jacobson.

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Schmitt, J.E., Wallace, G.L., Lenroot, R.K. et al. A Twin Study of Intracerebral Volumetric Relationships. Behav Genet 40, 114–124 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10519-010-9332-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10519-010-9332-6

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