A twin study of the genetic influences on the electroencephalogram.

Abstract

Many attempts have been made to relate individual differences in the background electroencephalogram (EEG) to various psychiatric conditions (Glaser, 1963;Hill, 1963;Wilson, 1965) and equivalent investigations have recently been carried out with the averaged evoked response waveform (Shagass and Schwartz, 1961, 1962Jones et al, 1965;Callaway, Jones, and Donchin, 1970) and the alpha attenuation response (Blum, 1957;Wells and Wolf, 1960;Davidoff and McDonald, 1964;Milstein, Stevens, and Sachdev, 1969

Average evoked response and stimulus intensity in identical and fraternal twins

“…1 and 2) in monozygotic twin pairs compellingly illustrates the importance of familial factors in the AER. Previous studies employing AER techniques have found greater waveform and amplitude similarities in monozygotic (MZ) twins than in dizygotic (DZ) twins (Dustman & Beck, 1965;Osborne, 1970;Lewis et al, 1972;Young et al, 1972). The significance of these findings is uncertain, since similarities in waveform or amplitude may reflect a variety of relatively nonspecific anatomical features.…”

Magnetoencephalography in Twins Reveals a Strong Genetic Determination of the Peak Frequency of Visually Induced Gamma-Band Synchronization

“…Previous twin studies on the heritability of brain rhythms focused on the classical EEG rhythms, delta, theta, alpha, and beta, and sleep rhythms (Vogel, 1970;Young et al, 1972;Lykken, 1982;van Beijsterveldt et al, 1996;Linkowski, 1999;Posthuma et al, 2001;Smit et al, 2006;Linkenkaer-Hansen et al, 2007). These were studied mainly during rest, when they are particularly pronounced (for review, see van Beijsterveldt and van Baal, 2002).…”

“…In the 1970s, for example, Vogel (1970) and Young et al (1972) investigated the heritabilities of the delta, theta, alpha, and beta rhythms in twins and showed heritabilities up to 0.9. Those early and subsequent related studies used resting-state or sleep recordings (Lykken, 1982;van Beijsterveldt et al, 1996;Linkowski, 1999;Posthuma et al, 2001;Smit et al, 2006;Linkenkaer-Hansen et al, 2007) (for review, see van Beijsterveldt and van Baal, 2002), because many of the classical brain rhythms are strongest under those conditions.…”

Developmental delay in P300 production in children at high risk for developing alcohol-related disorders

“…Thus, elucidating the factors responsible for variations in P300, particularly those that might be heritable, has been of interest given the observed association between P300 and psychopathological conditions. Overall, there is a considerable body of evidence suggesting that brain neuroelectrical activity, whether background electroencephalograms (Vogel et al 1979;Young et al 1972;Propping et al 1980;Lykken et al 1974), averaged sensory evoked responses (Buchsbaum 1974;Rust 1975), or ERP (Steinhauer et al 1987Bock 1976;Surwillo 1980;O'Connor et al 1994;van Beijsterveldt 1996) is heritable.…”