Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-7: Brain and Behaviour), Research Centre Jülich, 52425, Jülich, Germany; Institute of Systems Neuroscience, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, 40225, Düsseldorf, Germany; Otto Hahn Research Group "Cognitive Neurogenetics", Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany.
Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-7: Brain and Behaviour), Research Centre Jülich, 52425, Jülich, Germany; Institute of Systems Neuroscience, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, 40225, Düsseldorf, Germany.
Neuroimage. 2020 Oct 15;220:117067. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2020.117067. Epub 2020 Jun 20.
Local cortical architecture is highly heritable and distinct genes are associated with specific cortical regions. Total surface area has been shown to be genetically correlated with complex cognitive capacities, suggesting cortical brain structure is a viable endophenotype linking genes to behavior. However, to what extend local brain structure has a genetic association with cognitive and emotional functioning is incompletely understood. Here, we study the genetic correlation between personality traits and local cortical structure in a large-scale twin sample (Human Connectome Project, n = 1102, 22-37y) and we evaluated whether observed associations reflect generalizable relationships between personality and local brain structure two independent age-matched samples (Brain Genomics Superstructure Project: n = 925, age = 19-35y, enhanced Nathan Kline Institute dataset: n = 209, age: 19-39y). We found a genetic overlap between personality traits and local cortical structure in 10 of 18 observed phenotypic associations in predominantly frontal cortices. However, we only observed evidence in favor of replication for the negative association between surface area in medial prefrontal cortex and Neuroticism in both replication samples. Quantitative functional decoding indicated this region is implicated in emotional and socio-cognitive functional processes. In sum, our observations suggest that associations between local brain structure and personality are, in part, under genetic control. However, associations are weak and only the relation between frontal surface area and Neuroticism was consistently observed across three independent samples of young adults.
局部皮质结构具有高度遗传性，特定的基因与特定的皮质区域相关。总表面积与复杂认知能力存在遗传相关性，这表明皮质脑结构是将基因与行为联系起来的可行的内表型。然而，局部脑结构与认知和情绪功能的遗传关联程度尚不完全清楚。在这里，我们在一个大规模的双胞胎样本（人类连接组计划，n=1102，22-37 岁）中研究了人格特质与局部皮质结构之间的遗传相关性，我们评估了观察到的关联是否反映了人格与局部大脑结构之间普遍存在的关系在两个独立的年龄匹配样本中（大脑基因组超结构计划：n=925，年龄=19-35 岁，增强的 Nathan Kline 研究所数据集：n=209，年龄：19-39 岁）。我们发现，在观察到的 18 个表型关联中的 10 个中，人格特质与局部皮质结构之间存在遗传重叠，这些关联主要位于额叶皮质中。然而，我们只在两个复制样本中观察到了内侧前额叶皮质表面积与神经质之间负相关的复制证据。定量功能解码表明，该区域与情绪和社会认知功能过程有关。总之，我们的观察结果表明，局部脑结构与人格之间的关联在一定程度上受遗传控制。然而，关联很弱，只有前额表面积与神经质之间的关系在三个独立的年轻成年人样本中得到了一致观察。
