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：遗传和环境因素影响正常大脑中白质的连通性，并且还影响大脑连通性改变的疾病。尽管大脑神经通路的差异很大，但遗传因素对大脑连通性的影响知之甚少。在这里，我们应用“ DICCCOL”框架分析了261对双胞胎（522名参与者，平均年龄：21.8岁±2.7SD）中的结构连接性。通过将所有“ DICCCOL”的白质（WM）束投影为跟踪图（TM），我们对连接模式进行了编码。接下来，我们拟合了一个A / C / E结构方程模型，以估计观察到的大脑连通性变化的累加遗传（A），共同环境（C）和独特的环境/错误（E）分量。我们发现了44个“遗传性DICCCOL”，其连接性受到了遗传影响（α> 1％）;其中一半显示出显着的遗传力（α> 20％）。我们对WM结构连接性的遗传影响分析表明，某些WM投影模式具有较高的遗传力，为全基因组关联研究提供了新的靶标。
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