Familial and environmental influences on brain volumes in twins with schizophrenia

Picchioni, Marco; Rijsdijk, Frühling; Toulopoulou, Timothea; Chaddock, Christopher; Cole, James R.; Ettinger, Ulrich; Oses, Ana; Metcalfe, Hugo; Murray, Robin M.; McGuire, Philip

doi:10.1503/jpn.140277

Cited by 15 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 61 publications

(72 reference statements)

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“…Therefore, no multiple comparisons corrections were performed. Sample size of the present study was comparable to recently published twin studies using similar co-twin designs reporting medium to large effect size [47, 48]. .…”

Section: Methodssupporting

confidence: 84%

Sex differences in brain structure: a twin study on restricted and repetitive behaviors in twin pairs with and without autism

et al. 2019

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BackgroundFemales with autism spectrum disorder have been reported to exhibit fewer and less severe restricted and repetitive behaviors and interests compared to males. This difference might indicate sex-specific alterations of brain networks involved in autism symptom domains, especially within cortico-striatal and sensory integration networks. This study used a well-controlled twin design to examine sex differences in brain anatomy in relation to repetitive behaviors.MethodsIn 75 twin pairs (n = 150, 62 females, 88 males) enriched for autism spectrum disorder (n = 32), and other neurodevelopmental disorders (n = 32), we explored the association of restricted and repetitive behaviors and interests—operationalized by the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (C domain) and the Social Responsiveness Scale-2 (Restricted Interests and Repetitive Behavior subscale)—with cortical volume, surface area and thickness of neocortical, sub-cortical, and cerebellar networks.ResultsCo-twin control analyses revealed within-pair associations between RRBI symptoms and increased thickness of the right intraparietal sulcus and reduced volume of the right orbital gyrus in females only, even though the mean number of RRBIs did not differ between the sexes. In a sub-sample of ASD-discordant pairs, increased thickness in association with RRBIs was found exclusively in females in the orbitofrontal regions, superior frontal gyrus, and intraparietal sulcus, while in males RRBIs tended to be associated with increased volume of the bilateral pallidum.LimitationsHowever, due to a small sample size and the small difference in RRBI symptoms within pairs, the results of this exploratory study need to be interpreted with caution.ConclusionsOur findings suggest that structural alterations of fronto-parietal networks in association with RRBIs are found mostly in females, while striatal networks are more affected in males. These results endorse the importance of investigating sex differences in the neurobiology of autism symptoms, and indicate different etiological pathways underlying restricted and repetitive behaviors and interests in females and males.

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Section: Methodssupporting

confidence: 84%

Sex differences in brain structure: a twin study on restricted and repetitive behaviors in twin pairs with and without autism

et al. 2019

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“…All p-values are FDR corrected for Type I errors, significance threshold was set to p<.05. Sample size was comparable to recently published twin studies using similar co-twin designs reporting medium to large effect size (Wilson et al 2015;Picchioni et al 2017).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 83%

Sex differences in brain structure: An autism twin study on restricted and repetitive behaviors

Westeinde

Cauvet

Toro

et al. 2018

Preprint

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Females with autism spectrum disorder have been reported to exhibit fewer and less severe restricted and repetitive behaviors and interests compared to males. This difference might indicate sex specific alterations of brain networks involved in autism symptom domains, especially within cortico-striatal and sensory integration networks. This study used a well-controlled twin design to examine sex differences in brain anatomy in relation to repetitive behaviors. In 75 twin pairs (n=150, 62 females, 88 males) enriched for autism spectrum disorder (n=32), and other neurodevelopmental disorders (n =32), we explored the association of restricted and repetitive behaviors and interests -operationalized by the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (C domain) and the Social Responsiveness Scale-2 (Restricted Interests and Repetitive Behavior subscale), with cortical volume, surface area and thickness of neocortical, sub-cortical and cerebellar networks. Cotwin control analyses revealed within-pair associations between RRBI symptoms and the right intraparietal sulcus and right orbital gyrus in females only. These findings endorse the importance of investigating sex differences in the neurobiology of autism symptoms, and indicate different etiological pathways underlying restricted and repetitive behaviors and interests in females and males.

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“…Fourth, genetic or environmental effects on the DTI indices were not investigated in the current study. It is known that lower birth weight among individuals who later develop schizophrenia than among HCS, and a previous study has shown that birth weight influences the white matter volume in patients with schizophrenia [62][63][64]. Future research investigating the association between birth weight and DTI indices may be useful to show the effects of gene and environment interaction on white matter alteration in patients with psychotic disorders.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

White matter microstructural alterations across four major psychiatric disorders: mega-analysis study in 2937 individuals

et al. 2019

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Identifying both the commonalities and differences in brain structures among psychiatric disorders is important for understanding the pathophysiology. Recently, the ENIGMA-Schizophrenia DTI Working Group performed a large-scale meta-analysis and reported widespread white matter microstructural alterations in schizophrenia; however, no similar crossdisorder study has been carried out to date. Here, we conducted mega-analyses comparing white matter microstructural differences between healthy comparison subjects (HCS; N = 1506) and patients with schizophrenia (N = 696), bipolar disorder (N = 211), autism spectrum disorder (N = 126), or major depressive disorder (N = 398; total N = 2937 from 12 sites). In comparison with HCS, we found that schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and autism spectrum disorder share similar white matter microstructural differences in the body of the corpus callosum; schizophrenia and bipolar disorder featured comparable changes in the limbic system, such as the fornix and cingulum. By comparison, alterations in tracts connecting neocortical areas, such as the uncinate fasciculus, were observed only in schizophrenia. No significant difference was found in major depressive disorder. In a direct comparison between schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, there were no significant differences. Significant differences between schizophrenia/bipolar disorder and major depressive disorder were found in the limbic system, which were similar to the differences in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder relative to HCS. While schizophrenia and bipolar disorder may have similar pathological characteristics, the biological characteristics of major depressive disorder may be close to those of HCS. Our findings provide insights into nosology and encourage further investigations of shared and unique pathophysiology of psychiatric disorders.

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Familial and environmental influences on brain volumes in twins with schizophrenia

Cited by 15 publications

References 61 publications

Sex differences in brain structure: a twin study on restricted and repetitive behaviors in twin pairs with and without autism

Sex differences in brain structure: a twin study on restricted and repetitive behaviors in twin pairs with and without autism

Sex differences in brain structure: An autism twin study on restricted and repetitive behaviors

White matter microstructural alterations across four major psychiatric disorders: mega-analysis study in 2937 individuals

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