Subcortical brain volumes, cortical thickness and cortical surface area in families genetically enriched for social anxiety disorder – A multiplex multigenerational neuroimaging study

Abstract

BackgroundSocial anxiety disorder (SAD) is a disabling psychiatric condition with a genetic background. Brain alterations in gray matter (GM) related to SAD have been previously reported, but it remains to be elucidated whether GM measures are candidate endophenotypes of SAD. Endophenotypes are measurable characteristics on the causal pathway from genotype to phenotype, providing insight in genetically-based disease mechanisms. Based on a review of existing evidence, we examined whether GM characteristics meet two endophenotype criteria, using data from a unique sample of SAD-patients and their family-members of two generations. First, we investigated whether GM characteristics co-segregate with social anxiety within families genetically enriched for SAD. Secondly, heritability of the GM characteristics was estimated.MethodsFamilies with a genetic predisposition for SAD participated in the Leiden Family Lab study on SAD; T1-weighted MRI brain scans were acquired (n = 110, 8 families). Subcortical volumes, cortical thickness and cortical surface area were determined for a-priori determined regions of interest (ROIs). Next, associations with social anxiety and heritabilities were estimated.FindingsSeveral subcortical and cortical GM characteristics, derived from frontal, parietal and temporal ROIs, co-segregated with social anxiety within families (uncorrected p-level) and showed moderate to high heritability.InterpretationThese findings provide preliminary evidence that GM characteristics of multiple ROIs, which are distributed over the brain, are candidate endophenotypes of SAD. Thereby, they shed light on the genetic vulnerability for SAD. Future research is needed to confirm these results and to link them to functional brain alterations and to genetic variations underlying these GM changes.FundLeiden University Research Profile ‘Health, Prevention and the Human Life Cycle’.

ENIGMA and global neuroscience: A decade of large-scale studies of the brain in health and disease across more than 40 countries

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Imaging the socially-anxious brain: recent advances and future prospects

“…This study revealed multiple promising neurobiological endophenotypes of SAD 138 . To start, several structural brain characteristics, derived from cortical and subcortical brain regions, co-segregated with social anxiety within families and were at least moderately heritable 139 ; see accompanying commentary 140 . Furthermore, we employed two fMRI paradigms to explore the potential of brain responses as SAD endophenotypes.…”

Impaired neural habituation to neutral faces in families genetically enriched for social anxiety disorder

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