Genetic and environmental factors affect white matter connectivity in the normal brain, and they also influence diseases in which brain connectivity is altered. Little is known about genetic influences on brain connectivity, despite wide variations in the brain's neural pathways. Here we applied the “DICCCOL” framework to analyze structural connectivity, in 261 twin pairs (522 participants, mean age: 21.8 y ± 2.7SD). We encoded connectivity patterns by projecting the white matter (WM) bundles of all “DICCCOLs” as a tracemap (TM). Next we fitted an A/C/E structural equation model to estimate additive genetic (A), common environmental (C), and unique environmental/error (E) components of the observed variations in brain connectivity. We found 44 “heritable DICCCOLs” whose connectivity was genetically influenced (α>1%); half of them showed significant heritability (α>20%). Our analysis of genetic influences on WM structural connectivity suggests high heritability for some WM projection patterns, yielding new targets for genome-wide association studies.
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机译：遗传和环境因素会影响正常大脑的白质连接，它们也影响脑连接的疾病。尽管大脑的神经途径有很大变化，但遗传对脑连接的遗传影响很少。在这里，我们应用了“Dicccol”框架来分析结构连接，在261人（522名参与者，平均年龄：21.8 y±2.7sd）中。我们通过将所有“DICCOLSS”的白质（WM）捆绑突出为TRACEMAP（TM）来编码连接模式。接下来我们拟合A / C / E结构方程模型来估计添加剂遗传（a），常见的环境（c）和观察到的脑连接变化的独特环境/误差（e）组分。我们发现了44个“遗传性Diccols”，其连体受到遗传影响（α> 1％）;其中一半表现出显着的遗传性（α> 20％）。我们对WM结构连通性的遗传影响分析表明，对一些WM投影模式的遗传性具有很高的遗传性，从而产生了基因组关联研究的新靶标。
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