Heritability of Subcortical and Limbic Brain Volume and Shape in Multiplex-Multigenerational Families with Schizophrenia

摘要

BackgroundBrain abnormalities of subcortical and limbic nuclei are common in schizophrenia and variation in these structures is considered a putative endophenotype for the disorder. Multiplex-Multigenerational families afflicted by schizophrenia provide an opportunity to investigate the impact of shared genetic ancestry, but have not been previously examined to study structural brain abnormalities. Here we estimate the heritability of subcortical and hippocampal brain volumes in such families and the heritability of sub-regions using advanced shape analysis.