Genetic influences on structural and functional brain maturation

Abstract

General introduction 1 controls that was used to study accelerated aging of the brain in relation to accelerated epigenetic aging and polygenic risk for schizophrenia (Schnack et al., 2016;Ori et al., 2019). Finally, the Human Connectome Project Young Adult cohort that was used to evaluate the effectiveness of reliability modeling of functional connectivity of the brain in relation to various traits (van Essen et al., 2013). The BrainSCALE cohortThe BrainSCALE cohort is a longitudinal study of adolescent twins born between 1995-1996 whose parents registered them with the Netherlands Twin Register (NTR; Ligthart et al., 2019). Twin pairs who had an older sibling who was also willing to take part in the study were recruited through the NTR. The cohort was designed to investigate cognitive, behavioral, physical and physiological transitions during childhood and adolescence in relation to brain development and genetics. It is a collaborative effort between the University Medical Center Utrecht (UMCU) and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU Amsterdam). The subjects were selected to represent a cross-section of the Dutch population with an equal proportion of the sexes (52% female; including 20 dizygotic twin pairs of opposite sex), a mixture of ethnical background and culture, normal cognitive functioning (intelligence quotient 101.9 ± 14.75 at baseline), and no prior history of physical or mental health problems. They were assessed when the twins were 9, 12, and 17 years of age; average ages were 9.3 ± 0.28, 12.2 ± 0.35 and 17.2 ± 0.37 years, with their older siblings on average 2.7 ± 1.1 years older. Extensive phenotypic information was collected about the children, including cognitive, behavioral, and neuropsychological tests, physical assessment, hormone levels, and magnetic resonance imaging scans of the brain Koenis et al., 2013). The BrainSCALE study was approved by the Central Committee on Research Involving Human Subjects of The Netherlands (CCMO). CHAPTER 2 LONGITUDINAL DEVELOPMENT OF CEREBRAL CORTICAL THICKNESSOriginal title: Genetic influences on the development of cerebral cortical thickness during childhood and adolescence in a Dutch longitudinal twin sample: the BrainSCALE study