The brain is subject of fascination and mystery. The largest ever study of the genetics of brain which analyzed around 36,000 brain scans has pinpointed over 4,000 genetic factors associated with brain structure. The brain displays significant variation between individuals in aspects such as overall volume, folding patterns and thickness of the folds. Little is known about how genetic makeup shapes the development of the brain.
Researchers at the Autism Research Centre, University of Cambridge accessed MRI scans from opver 32000 adults from the UK Biobank cohort 4,000 children from the US based ABCD study. From these scans the researchers measured multiple properties of the outermost layer of the brain called the cortex. These included measures of the area and the volume of the cortex as well as how the cortex is folded. They then linked these properties, measured both across the entire cortex as well as in 180 individual regions of the cortex, to genetic information across the genome. The team identified 4000 genetic variants linked to brain structure.
One interesting question was if the same genes are linked how big the cortex is – measured by both volume and area are also linked to how the cortex is folded. By measuring these different properties of the brain and linking them to genetics it was found that different sets of genes contribute to folding and size of the cortex. The work shows how our brain develops is partly genetics. The finding can be used to understand how changes in the shape and size of the brain can lead to neurological conditions.