Genetic Epidemiology, Translational Neurogenomics, Psychiatric Genetics and Statistical Genetics Laboratories investigate the pattern of disease in families, particularly identical and non-identical twins, to assess the relative importance of genes and environment in a variety of important health problems.
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PMID
24231518
TITLE
Heritability of brain volumes in older adults: the Older Australian Twins Study.
ABSTRACT
The relative contributions of genetic and environmental factors to brain structure change throughout the lifespan. Brain structures have been reported to be highly heritable in middle-aged individuals and younger; however, the influence of genes on brain structure is less studied in older adults. We performed a magnetic resonance imaging study of 236 older twins, with a mean age of 71.4 ± 5.7 years, to examine the heritability of 53 brain global and lobar volumetric measures. Total brain volume (63%) and other volumetric measures were moderately to highly heritable in late life, and these genetic influences tended to decrease with age, suggesting a greater influence of environmental factors as age advanced. Genetic influences were higher in men and on the left hemisphere compared with the right. In multivariate models, common genetic factors were observed for global and lobar total and gray matter volumes. This study examined the genetic contribution to 53 brain global and lobar volumetric measures in older twins for the first time, and the influence of age, sex, and laterality on these genetic contributions, which are useful information for a better understanding of the process of brain aging and helping individuals to have a healthy aging.
Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
DATE PUBLISHED
2014 Apr
HISTORY
PUBSTATUS PUBSTATUSDATE
received 2013/02/05
revised 2013/10/10
accepted 2013/10/14
aheadofprint 2013/10/17
entrez 2013/11/16 06:00
pubmed 2013/11/16 06:00
medline 2014/09/30 06:00
AUTHORS
NAME COLLECTIVENAME LASTNAME FORENAME INITIALS AFFILIATION AFFILIATIONINFO
Batouli SA Batouli Seyed Amir Hossein SA School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia; Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing (CHeBA), School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.
Sachdev PS Sachdev Perminder S PS School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia; Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing (CHeBA), School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. Electronic address: p.sachdev@unsw.edu.au.
Wen W Wen Wei W School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia; Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing (CHeBA), School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.
Wright MJ Wright Margaret J MJ Queensland Institute of Medical Research, Brisbane, Australia.
Ames D Ames David D Director, National Ageing Research Institute and University of Melbourne, Australia; Professor of Ageing and health, Department of Psychiatry, University of Melbourne, Australia.
Trollor JN Trollor Julian N JN Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing (CHeBA), School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia; Head, Department of Developmental Disability Neuropsychiatry, School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.
INVESTIGATORS
JOURNAL
VOLUME: 35
ISSUE: 4
TITLE: Neurobiology of aging
ISOABBREVIATION: Neurobiol. Aging
YEAR: 2014
MONTH: Apr
DAY:
MEDLINEDATE:
SEASON:
CITEDMEDIUM: Internet
ISSN: 1558-1497
ISSNTYPE: Electronic
MEDLINE JOURNAL
MEDLINETA: Neurobiol Aging
COUNTRY: United States
ISSNLINKING: 0197-4580
NLMUNIQUEID: 8100437
PUBLICATION TYPE
PUBLICATIONTYPE TEXT
Journal Article
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Twin Study
COMMENTS AND CORRECTIONS
GRANTS
GENERAL NOTE
KEYWORDS
KEYWORD
Aging
Brain volume
Genetics
Heritability
Twin study
MESH HEADINGS
DESCRIPTORNAME QUALIFIERNAME
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Aging physiology
Austria physiology
Brain physiology
Female physiology
Humans physiology
Magnetic Resonance Imaging physiology
Male physiology
Organ Size genetics
Quantitative Trait, Heritable genetics
Twins genetics
SUPPLEMENTARY MESH
GENE SYMBOLS
CHEMICALS
OTHER ID's