Heritability of brain volume on MRI in middle to advanced age: A twin study of Japanese adults

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 12; no. 4; p. e0175800
• Main Authors: Lukies, Matthew W, Watanabe, Yoshiyuki, Tanaka, Hisashi, Takahashi, Hiroto, Ogata, Soshiro, Omura, Kayoko, Yorifuji, Shiro, Tomiyama, Noriyuki
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 20.04.2017; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Adult; Adults; Age; Aged; Aging; Atrophy; Biology and Life Sciences; Brain; Brain - diagnostic imaging; Brain research; Cerebrospinal fluid; Community health care; Dementia; Environment models; Female; Genetics; Health care; Heritability; Humans; Japan; Magnetic resonance; Magnetic resonance imaging; Magnetic Resonance Imaging - methods; Male; Medicine; Medicine and Health Sciences; Middle age; Middle Aged; Minority & ethnic groups; Morphology; Neurodegenerative diseases; Neurological diseases; NMR; Nuclear magnetic resonance; Older people; Population studies; Quarks; Research and Analysis Methods; Scanners; Studies; Substantia alba; Substantia grisea; Twin studies; Twins; University graduates; Japan
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0175800

Brain atrophy is part of the aging process and accelerated by neurodegenerative diseases, so an understanding of the background heritability of brain volume is essential. The purpose of this study was to determine the heritability of brain volume in middle to advanced age East Asian adults, an age group less studied and an ethnicity not previously studied. 3T magnetic resonance images were obtained and volumetric analyses conducted for a total of 74 individuals, 20 monozygotic twin pairs (mean age 61y min 41y max 75y) and 17 dizygotic twin pairs (mean age 64y min 41y max 85y). Total brain volume and a further seven regions were assessed, including lobar volumes, lateral divisions, and separated grey and white matter. Additive genetics and unique environment (AE) models for global brain volumes including total brain (90%), grey matter (91%) and white matter (84%) and many lobar volumes demonstrated high heritability in our study population. Our results present the heritability of brain volume in middle to advanced age as possibly higher in East Asian adults.