title: The heritability of volumes of brain structures and its relationship to age: a review of twin and family studies.
abstract: Total brain volume (BV) and the volumes of brain substructures are influenced by genes, the magnitude of which changes with age. One approach to the examination of genetic influences on the volumes of brain structures is to determine their heritability using twin and family studies. We reviewed published cross-sectional studies which examined heritability in healthy subjects at different ages. We identified 32 studies, which examined a total of 77 brain volumetric measures. The findings of our review showed that BVs are under significant genetic influence at all ages, although different brain regions showed different heritability levels. Furthermore, the cross-sectional approach of our review found that heritability factor for the majority of BVs declined with age, such as in the total brain and cerebrum, followed by subsequent increment of environmental influences. Overall, this study identified for the first time a cross-sectional pattern for brain structures' heritability changes with age, and suggests the potential for longitudinal investigations in the future.
authors.affiliation: Center for Healthy Brain Ageing (CHeBA), School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.
authors.forename: Seyed Amir Hossein
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Batouli
authors.affiliation: Center for Healthy Brain Ageing (CHeBA), School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia; Department of Developmental Disability Neuropsychiatry, School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.
authors.forename: Julian N
authors.initials: JN
authors.lastname: Trollor
authors.affiliation: Center for Healthy Brain Ageing (CHeBA), School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia; Neuropsychiatric Institute, Prince of Wales Hospital, NSW, Australia; Primary Dementia Collaborative Research Centre, University of New South Wales Medicine, School of Psychiatry, NSW, Australia.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wen
authors.affiliation: Center for Healthy Brain Ageing (CHeBA), School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia; Neuropsychiatric Institute, Prince of Wales Hospital, NSW, Australia; Primary Dementia Collaborative Research Centre, University of New South Wales Medicine, School of Psychiatry, NSW, Australia. Electronic address: p.sachdev@unsw.edu.au.
authors.forename: Perminder S
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: Sachdev
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000375:Aging / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology*; D005838:Genotype; D040941:Heredity; D006801:Humans; D009929:Organ Size; D010641:Phenotype; D018433:Twin Studies as Topic; D014427:Twins / Q000235:genetics*
keywords: Brain volume; Elderly; Healthy ageing; Heritability; Twins