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Genetic and environmental influences on structural brain measures in twins with autism spectrum disorder

Atypical growth patterns of the brain have been previously reported in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) but these alterations are heterogeneous across individuals, which may be associated with the variable effects of genetic and environmental influences on brain development. Monozygotic (MZ) and dizyg...

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Autores principales: Hegarty, John P., Pegoraro, Luiz F. L., Lazzeroni, Laura C., Raman, Mira M., Hallmayer, Joachim F., Monterrey, Julio C., Cleveland, Sue C., Wolke, Olga N., Phillips, Jennifer M., Reiss, Allan L., Hardan, Antonio Y.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6639158/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30659287
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41380-018-0330-z
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author Hegarty, John P.
Pegoraro, Luiz F. L.
Lazzeroni, Laura C.
Raman, Mira M.
Hallmayer, Joachim F.
Monterrey, Julio C.
Cleveland, Sue C.
Wolke, Olga N.
Phillips, Jennifer M.
Reiss, Allan L.
Hardan, Antonio Y.
author_facet Hegarty, John P.
Pegoraro, Luiz F. L.
Lazzeroni, Laura C.
Raman, Mira M.
Hallmayer, Joachim F.
Monterrey, Julio C.
Cleveland, Sue C.
Wolke, Olga N.
Phillips, Jennifer M.
Reiss, Allan L.
Hardan, Antonio Y.
author_sort Hegarty, John P.
collection PubMed
description Atypical growth patterns of the brain have been previously reported in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) but these alterations are heterogeneous across individuals, which may be associated with the variable effects of genetic and environmental influences on brain development. Monozygotic (MZ) and dizygotic (DZ) twin pairs with and without ASD (aged 6–15 years) were recruited to participate in this study. T1-weighted MRIs (n = 164) were processed with FreeSurfer to evaluate structural brain measures. Intra-class correlations were examined within twin pairs and compared across diagnostic groups. ACE modeling was also completed. Structural brain measures, including cerebral and cerebellar gray matter (GM) and white matter (WM) volume, surface area, and cortical thickness, were primarily influenced by genetic factors in TD twins; however, mean curvature appeared to be primarily influenced by environmental factors. Similarly, genetic factors accounted for the majority of variation in brain size in twins with ASD, potentially to a larger extent regarding curvature and subcortical GM; however, there were also more environmental contributions in twins with ASD on some structural brain measures, such that cortical thickness and cerebellar WM volume were primarily influenced by environmental factors. These findings indicate potential neurobiological outcomes of the genetic and environmental risk factors that have been previously associated with ASD and, although preliminary, may help account for some of the previously outlined neurobiological heterogeneity across affected individuals. This is especially relevant regarding the role of genetic and environmental factors in the development of ASD, in which certain brain structures may be more sensitive to specific influences.
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spelling pubmed-66391582019-07-19 Genetic and environmental influences on structural brain measures in twins with autism spectrum disorder Hegarty, John P. Pegoraro, Luiz F. L. Lazzeroni, Laura C. Raman, Mira M. Hallmayer, Joachim F. Monterrey, Julio C. Cleveland, Sue C. Wolke, Olga N. Phillips, Jennifer M. Reiss, Allan L. Hardan, Antonio Y. Mol Psychiatry Article Atypical growth patterns of the brain have been previously reported in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) but these alterations are heterogeneous across individuals, which may be associated with the variable effects of genetic and environmental influences on brain development. Monozygotic (MZ) and dizygotic (DZ) twin pairs with and without ASD (aged 6–15 years) were recruited to participate in this study. T1-weighted MRIs (n = 164) were processed with FreeSurfer to evaluate structural brain measures. Intra-class correlations were examined within twin pairs and compared across diagnostic groups. ACE modeling was also completed. Structural brain measures, including cerebral and cerebellar gray matter (GM) and white matter (WM) volume, surface area, and cortical thickness, were primarily influenced by genetic factors in TD twins; however, mean curvature appeared to be primarily influenced by environmental factors. Similarly, genetic factors accounted for the majority of variation in brain size in twins with ASD, potentially to a larger extent regarding curvature and subcortical GM; however, there were also more environmental contributions in twins with ASD on some structural brain measures, such that cortical thickness and cerebellar WM volume were primarily influenced by environmental factors. These findings indicate potential neurobiological outcomes of the genetic and environmental risk factors that have been previously associated with ASD and, although preliminary, may help account for some of the previously outlined neurobiological heterogeneity across affected individuals. This is especially relevant regarding the role of genetic and environmental factors in the development of ASD, in which certain brain structures may be more sensitive to specific influences. Nature Publishing Group UK 2019-01-18 2020 /pmc/articles/PMC6639158/ /pubmed/30659287 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41380-018-0330-z Text en © The Author(s) 2019 This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
spellingShingle Article
Hegarty, John P.
Pegoraro, Luiz F. L.
Lazzeroni, Laura C.
Raman, Mira M.
Hallmayer, Joachim F.
Monterrey, Julio C.
Cleveland, Sue C.
Wolke, Olga N.
Phillips, Jennifer M.
Reiss, Allan L.
Hardan, Antonio Y.
Genetic and environmental influences on structural brain measures in twins with autism spectrum disorder
title Genetic and environmental influences on structural brain measures in twins with autism spectrum disorder
title_full Genetic and environmental influences on structural brain measures in twins with autism spectrum disorder
title_fullStr Genetic and environmental influences on structural brain measures in twins with autism spectrum disorder
title_full_unstemmed Genetic and environmental influences on structural brain measures in twins with autism spectrum disorder
title_short Genetic and environmental influences on structural brain measures in twins with autism spectrum disorder
title_sort genetic and environmental influences on structural brain measures in twins with autism spectrum disorder
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6639158/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30659287
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41380-018-0330-z
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