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Multivariate analysis reveals shared genetic architecture of brain morphology and human behavior

Published version
Peer-reviewed

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Authors

Slob, Eric A. W. 
Koellinger, Philipp D. 

Abstract

Abstract: Human variation in brain morphology and behavior are related and highly heritable. Yet, it is largely unknown to what extent specific features of brain morphology and behavior are genetically related. Here, we introduce a computationally efficient approach for multivariate genomic-relatedness-based restricted maximum likelihood (MGREML) to estimate the genetic correlation between a large number of phenotypes simultaneously. Using individual-level data (N = 20,190) from the UK Biobank, we provide estimates of the heritability of gray-matter volume in 74 regions of interest (ROIs) in the brain and we map genetic correlations between these ROIs and health-relevant behavioral outcomes, including intelligence. We find four genetically distinct clusters in the brain that are aligned with standard anatomical subdivision in neuroscience. Behavioral traits have distinct genetic correlations with brain morphology which suggests trait-specific relevance of ROIs. These empirical results illustrate how MGREML can be used to estimate internally consistent and high-dimensional genetic correlation matrices in large datasets.

Description

Keywords

Article, /631/208/457, /631/208/1515, /45/43, article

Journal Title

Communications Biology

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

2399-3642

Volume Title

4

Publisher

Nature Publishing Group UK
Sponsorship
EC | EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation H2020 | H2020 Priority Excellent Science | H2020 European Research Council (H2020 Excellent Science - European Research Council) (647648 EdGe, 647648 EdGe, 946647 GEPSI)
Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research) (EINF-403)
UW | Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison (VCRGE, UW) (N/A)