TY  - JOUR
AU  - Winkler, A.M.
AU  - Kochunov, P.
AU  - Blangero, J.
AU  - Almasy, L.
AU  - Zilles, K.
AU  - Fox, P.T.
AU  - Duggirala, R.
AU  - Glahn, D.C.
TI  - Cortical thickness or grey matter volume? The importance of selecting the phenotype for imaging genetics studies
JO  - NeuroImage
VL  - 53
SN  - 1053-8119
CY  - Orlando, Fla.
PB  - Academic Press
M1  - PreJuSER-10472
SP  - 1135 - 1146
PY  - 2010
N1  - The authors gratefully acknowledge Jack W. Kent Jr. for his invaluable support. The authors thank the Athinoula Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging and the FMRIB Imaging Analysis Group for providing software used for the analyses. Financial support for this study was provided by NIMH grants MH0708143 (PI: D. C. Glahn), MH078111 (PI: J. Blangero) and MH083824 (PI: D. C. Glahn) and by the NIBIB grant EB006395 (P. Kochunov). SOLAR is supported by NIMH grant MH59490 (J. Blangero). None of the authors have financial interests to disclose.
AB  - Choosing the appropriate neuroimaging phenotype is critical to successfully identify genes that influence brain structure or function. While neuroimaging methods provide numerous potential phenotypes, their role for imaging genetics studies is unclear. Here we examine the relationship between brain volume, grey matter volume, cortical thickness and surface area, from a genetic standpoint. Four hundred and eighty-six individuals from randomly ascertained extended pedigrees with high-quality T1-weighted neuroanatomic MRI images participated in the study. Surface-based and voxel-based representations of brain structure were derived, using automated methods, and these measurements were analysed using a variance-components method to identify the heritability of these traits and their genetic correlations. All neuroanatomic traits were significantly influenced by genetic factors. Cortical thickness and surface area measurements were found to be genetically and phenotypically independent. While both thickness and area influenced volume measurements of cortical grey matter, volume was more closely related to surface area than cortical thickness. This trend was observed for both the volume-based and surface-based techniques. The results suggest that surface area and cortical thickness measurements should be considered separately and preferred over gray matter volumes for imaging genetic studies.
KW  - Adult
KW  - Aged
KW  - Aged, 80 and over
KW  - Brain: anatomy & histology
KW  - Brain Mapping: methods
KW  - Female
KW  - Humans
KW  - Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted
KW  - Magnetic Resonance Imaging
KW  - Male
KW  - Middle Aged
KW  - Pedigree
KW  - Phenotype
KW  - Quantitative Trait, Heritable
KW  - J (WoSType)
LB  - PUB:(DE-HGF)16
C6  - pmid:20006715
C2  - pmc:PMC2891595
UR  - <Go to ISI:>//WOS:000282039300040
DO  - DOI:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2009.12.028
UR  - https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/10472
ER  -