Language-related cerebral oscillatory changes are influenced equally by genetic and environmental factors

• Published in: NeuroImage (Orlando, Fla.) Vol. 142; pp. 241 - 247
• Main Authors: Araki, Toshihiko, Hirata, Masayuki, Yanagisawa, Takufumi, Sugata, Hisato, Onishi, Mai, Watanabe, Yoshiyuki, Ogata, Soshiro, Honda, Chika, Hayakawa, Kazuo, Yorifuji, Shiro, Iwatani, Yoshinori, Sakai, Norio, Kamide, Kei, Kihara, Shinji, Makimoto, Kiyoko, Watanabe, Hiroko, Hatazawa, Jun, Takahashi, Masanori, Watanabe, Mikio, Tomizawa, Rie
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Inc 15.11.2016; Elsevier Limited
• Subjects: Adult; Aged; Brain research; Electroencephalography Phase Synchronization - physiology; Evoked Potentials - physiology; Female; Gamma Rhythm - physiology; Gene-Environment Interaction; Genetic influence; Humans; Language; Magnetoencephalography; Magnetoencephalography - methods; Male; Medical imaging; Middle Aged; NMR; Nuclear magnetic resonance; Oscillation; Pattern Recognition, Visual - physiology; Reading; Studies; Twin study; Twins; Twins, Dizygotic; Twins, Monozygotic; CNTNAP2; Magnetoencephalography; Twin study; ERS; ICC; Genetic influence; MNI; ERSP; WMS-R; MZ; MEG; SPM8; fMRI; Language; DZ; ERD; Oscillation; SEM; AIC; BA
• ISSN: 1053-8119; 1095-9572
• DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2016.05.066

Twin studies have suggested that there are genetic influences on inter-individual variation in terms of verbal abilities, and candidate genes have been identified by genome-wide association studies. However, the brain activities under genetic influence during linguistic processing remain unclear. In this study, we investigated neuromagnetic activities during a language task in a group of 28 monozygotic (MZ) and 12 dizygotic (DZ) adult twin pairs. We examined the spatio-temporal distribution of the event-related desynchronizations (ERDs) in the low gamma band (25–50Hz) using beamformer analyses and time–frequency analyses. Heritability was evaluated by comparing the respective MZ and DZ correlations. The genetic and environmental contributions were then estimated by structural equation modeling (SEM). We found that the peaks of the low gamma ERDs were localized to the left frontal area. The power of low gamma ERDs in this area exhibited higher similarity between MZ twins than that between DZ twins. SEM estimated the genetic contribution as approximately 50%. In addition, these powers were negatively correlated with the behavioral verbal scores. These results improve our understanding of how genetic and environmental factors influence cerebral activities during linguistic processes. •Heredity and environment equally effect on language-related frontal activity.•Language-related frontal activity was highly similar in monozygotic twins.•Language-related frontal activity was significantly correlated with verbal scores.