Shared and unique heritability of hippocampal subregion volumes in children and adults
Jacob G. Pine,
Arpana Agrawal,
Ryan Bogdan,
Sridhar Kandala,
Shelly Cooper,
Deanna M. Barch
Affiliations
Jacob G. Pine
Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO 63130, United States of America; Corresponding author.
Arpana Agrawal
Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110, United States of America
Ryan Bogdan
Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO 63130, United States of America
Sridhar Kandala
Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110, United States of America
Shelly Cooper
Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO 63130, United States of America
Deanna M. Barch
Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO 63130, United States of America; Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110, United States of America; Department of Radiology, Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110, United States of America
Behavioral genetic analyses have not demonstrated robust, unique, genetic correlates of hippocampal subregion volume. Genetic differentiation of hippocampal longitudinal axis subregion volume has not yet been investigated in population-based samples, although this has been demonstrated in rodent and post-mortem human tissue work. The following study is the first population-based investigation of genetic factors that contribute to gray matter volume along the hippocampal longitudinal axis. Twin-based biometric analyses demonstrated that longitudinal axis subregions are associated with significant, unique, genetic variance, and that longitudinal axis subregions are also associated with significant shared, hippocampus-general, genetic factors. Our study’s findings suggest that genetic differences in hippocampal longitudinal axis structure can be detected in individual differences in gray matter volume in population-level research designs.