title: Common Genetic Variant in VIT Is Associated with Human Brain Asymmetry.
abstract: Brain asymmetry varies across individuals. However, genetic factors contributing to this normal variation are largely unknown. Here we studied variation of cortical surface area asymmetry in a large sample of subjects. We performed principal component analysis (PCA) to capture correlated asymmetry variation across cortical regions. We found that caudal and rostral anterior cingulate together account for a substantial part of asymmetry variation among individuals. To find SNPs associated with this subset of brain asymmetry variation we performed a genome-wide association study followed by replication in an independent cohort. We identified one SNP (rs11691187) that had genome-wide significant association (P Combined = 2.40e-08). The rs11691187 is in the first intron of VIT. In a follow-up analysis, we found that VIT gene expression is associated with brain asymmetry in six donors of the Allen Human Brain Atlas. Based on these findings we suggest that VIT contributes to normal brain asymmetry variation. Our results can shed light on disorders associated with altered brain asymmetry.
authors.affiliation: School of Cognitive Sciences, Institute for Research in Fundamental SciencesTehran, Iran; School of Mathematics, Institute for Research in Fundamental SciencesTehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Sayed H
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Tadayon
authors.affiliation: Vision Sciences Laboratory, Department of Psychology, Harvard University Cambridge, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Maryam
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Vaziri-Pashkam
authors.affiliation: School of Cognitive Sciences, Institute for Research in Fundamental Sciences Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Pegah
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Kahali
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, School of Biology, College of Science, University of Tehran Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Mitra
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ansari Dezfouli
authors.affiliation: School of Cognitive Sciences, Institute for Research in Fundamental SciencesTehran, Iran; School of Mathematics, Institute for Research in Fundamental SciencesTehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Abdolhossein
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Abbassian
keywords: asymmetry; genome-wide association study; imaging genetics; lateralization; surface area