title: Preliminary findings on the heritability of the neural correlates of response inhibition.
abstract: Imaging genetics examines genetic influences on brain structure and function. This preliminary study tested a fundamental assumption of that approach by estimating the heritability of the blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) signal during antisaccades, a measure of response inhibition impaired in different psychiatric conditions. One hundred thirty-two healthy same-sex reared-together twins (90 monozygotic (MZ; 32 male) and 42 dizygotic (DZ; 24 male)) performed antisaccades in the laboratory. Of these, 96 twins (60 MZ, 28 male; 36 DZ, 22 male) subsequently underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during antisaccades. Variation in antisaccade direction errors in the laboratory showed significant heritability (47%; 95% confidence interval (CI) 22-65). In fMRI, the contrast of antisaccades with prosaccades yielded BOLD signal in fronto-parietal-subcortical networks. Twin modelling provided tentative evidence of significant heritability (50%, 95% CI: 18-72) of BOLD in the left thalamus only. However, due to the limited power to detect heritability in this study, replications in larger samples are needed.
authors.affiliation: MRC Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, London, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Christine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Macare
authors.affiliation: Institute for Clinical Radiology, University of Munich, Munich, Germany.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Meindl
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Jena University Hospital, Friedrich-Schiller-University, Jena, Germany.
authors.forename: Igor
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Nenadic
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Halle, Halle, Germany.
authors.forename: Dan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Rujescu
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany. Electronic address: ulrich.ettinger@uni-bonn.de.
authors.forename: Ulrich
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Ettinger
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D056344:Executive Function / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D007360:Intelligence / Q000235:genetics; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D012438:Saccades / Q000235:genetics*; D014427:Twins / Q000235:genetics*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Behavioural genetics; Cognitive control; Eye movements; Response inhibition; fMRI