Department of Psychology, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, 103 Denmark Hill, PO BOX 67, London, SE5 8AF, UK.
Behav Genet. 2010 Mar;40(2):157-66. doi: 10.1007/s10519-009-9317-5. Epub 2009 Dec 5.
Adult psychopathology is often rooted early in life and first emerges during childhood and adolescence. However, as most imaging genetic research to date has involved adult participants, little is known about how risk genes affect brain function to influence biological vulnerability in childhood. We examined the impact of neuregulin1 (NRG1), a probable susceptibility gene for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, on brain function in a sample of 102 healthy 10-12 year old boys including 18 pairs of monozygotic twins, 24 pairs of dizygotic twins and 18 singletons. Each participant performed a perceptual matching task, while brain responses were measured using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Response accuracy and reaction times did not differ as a function of NRG1 genotype; however, individuals with two high-risk alleles showed relatively increased brain activation in a distributed network comprising the precuneus bilaterally, and the left cuneus, middle occipital gyrus, angular gyrus and caudate nucleus. These results indicate that genetic variation in NRG1 significantly affects cortical function during perceptual and monitoring processes in healthy children as young as 10-12 years of age.
成人精神病理学通常源于生命早期，最早出现在儿童和青少年时期。然而，由于迄今为止大多数成像遗传学研究都涉及成年参与者，因此对于风险基因如何影响大脑功能以影响儿童时期的生物脆弱性知之甚少。我们在 102 名健康的 10-12 岁男孩样本中研究了神经调节蛋白 1（NRG1）的影响，该基因是精神分裂症和双相情感障碍的一个可能易感基因，包括 18 对同卵双胞胎、24 对异卵双胞胎和 18 个单胞胎。每个参与者都执行了一个感知匹配任务，同时使用功能磁共振成像测量大脑反应。NRG1 基因型对反应准确性和反应时间没有影响；然而，具有两个高风险等位基因的个体在一个包含双侧楔前叶和左侧楔叶、中枕叶回、角回和尾状核的分布式网络中表现出相对增加的大脑激活。这些结果表明，NRG1 的遗传变异显著影响了健康儿童在 10-12 岁时进行感知和监测过程中的皮质功能。
