PLoS ONE (Jan 2017)

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

  • Matthew W Lukies,
  • Yoshiyuki Watanabe,
  • Hisashi Tanaka,
  • Hiroto Takahashi,
  • Soshiro Ogata,
  • Kayoko Omura,
  • Shiro Yorifuji,
  • Noriyuki Tomiyama,
  • Osaka University Twin Research Group

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0175800
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 12, no. 4
p. e0175800

Abstract

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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.