Intracranial volume reflects the maximally attained brain size during development, and remains stable with loss of tissue in late life. It is highly heritable, but the underlying genes remain largely undetermined. In a genome-wide association study of 32,438 adults, we discovered five previously unknown loci for intracranial volume and confirmed two known signals. Four of the loci were also associated with adult human stature, but these remained associated with intracranial volume after adjusting for height. We found a high genetic correlation with child head circumference (rho(genetic) = 0.748), which indicates a similar genetic background and allowed us to identify four additional loci through meta-analysis (N-combined = 37,345). Variants for intracranial volume were also related to childhood and adult cognitive function, and Parkinson's disease, and were enriched near genes involved in growth pathways, including PI3K-AKT signaling. These findings identify the biological underpinnings of intracranial volume and their link to physiological and pathological traits.
| Authors | Adams, Hieab H. H.; Hibar, Derrek P.; Chouraki, Vincent; Stein, Jason L.; Nyquist, Paul A.; Renteria, Miguel E.; Trompet, Stella; Arias-Vasquez, Alejandro; Seshadri, Sudha; Desrivieres, Sylvane; Beecham, Ashley H.; Jahanshad, Neda; Wittfeld, Katharine; van der Lee, Sven J.; Abramovic, Lucija; Alhusaini, Saud; Amin, Najaf; Andersson, Micael; Arfanakis, Konstantinos; Aribisala, Benjamin S.; Armstrong, Nicola J.; Athanasiu, Lavinia; Axelsson, Tomas; Beiser, Alexa; Bernard, Manon; Bis, Joshua C.; Blanken, Laura M. E.; Blanton, Susan H.; Bohlken, Marc M.; Boks, Marco P.; Bralten, Janita; Brickman, Adam M.; Carmichael, Owen; Chakravarty, M. Mallar; Chauhan, Ganesh; Chen, Qiang; Ching, Christopher R. K.; Cuellar-Partida, Gabriel; den Braber, Anouk; Doan, Nhat Trung; Ehrlich, Stefan; Filippi, Irina; Ge, Tian; Giddaluru, Sudheer; Goldman, Aaron L.; Gottesman, Rebecca F.; Greven, Corina U.; Grimm, Oliver; Griswold, Michael E.; Guadalupe, Tulio; Hass, Johanna; Haukvik, Unn K.; Hilal, Saima; Hofer, Edith; Hoehn, David; Holmes, Avram J.; Hoogman, Martine; Janowitz, Deborah; Jia, Tianye; Kasperaviciute, Dalia; Kim, Sungeun; Klein, Marieke; Kraemer, Bernd; Lee, Phil H.; Liao, Jiemin; Liewald, David C. M.; Lopez, Lorna M.; Luciano, Michelle; Macare, Christine; Marquand, Andre; Matarin, Mar; Mather, Karen A.; Mattheisen, Manuel; Mazoyer, Bernard; Mckay, David R.; McWhirter, Rebekah; Milaneschi, Yuri; Mirza-Schreiber, Nazanin; Muetzel, Ryan L.; Maniega, Susana Munoz; Nho, Kwangsik; Nugent, Allison C.; Loohuis, Loes M. Olde; Oosterlaan, Jaap; Papmeyer, Martina; Pappa, Irene; Pirpamer, Lukas; Pudas, Sara; Puetz, Benno; Rajan, Kumar B.; Ramasamy, Adaikalavan; Richards, Jennifer S.; Risacher, Shannon L.; Roiz-Santianez, Roberto; Rommelse, Nanda; Rose, Emma J.; Royle, Natalie A.; Rundek, Tatjana; Saemann, Philipp G.; Satizabal, Claudia L.; Schmaal, Lianne; Schork, Andrew J.; Shen, Li; Shin, Jean; Shumskaya, Elena; Smith, Albert V.; Sprooten, Emma; Strike, Lachlan T.; Teumer, Alexander; Thomson, Russell; Tordesillas-Gutierrez, Diana; Toro, Roberto; Trabzuni, Daniah; Vaidya, Dhananjay; Van der Grond, Jeroen; Van der Meer, Dennis; van Donkelaar, Marjolein M. J.; Van Eijk, Kristel R.; van Erp, Theo G. M.; Van Rooij, Daan; Walton, Esther; Westlye, Lars T.; Whelan, Christopher D.; Windham, Beverly G.; Winkler, Anderson M.; Woldehawariat, Girma; Wolf, Christiane; Wolfers, Thomas; Xu, Bing; Yanek, Lisa R.; Yang, Jingyun; Zijdenbos, Alex; Zwiers, Marcel P.; Agartz, Ingrid; Aggarwal, Neelum T.; Almasy, Laura; Ames, David; Amouyel, Philippe; Andreassen, Ole A.; Arepalli, Sampath; Assareh, Amelia A.; Barral, Sandra; Bastin, Mark E.; Becker, Diane M.; Becker, James T.; Bennett, David A.; Blangero, John; van Bokhoven, Hans; Boomsma, Dorret I.; Brodaty, Henry; Brouwer, Rachel M.; Brunner, Han G.; Buckner, Randy L.; Buitelaar, Jan K.; Bulayeva, Kazima B.; Cahn, Wiepke; Calhoun, Vince D.; Cannon, Dara M.; Cavalleri, Gianpiero L.; Chen, Christopher; Cheng, Ching -Yu; Cichon, Sven; Cookson, Mark R.; Corvin, Aiden; Crespo-Facorro, Benedicto; Curran, Joanne E.; Czisch, Michael; Dale, Anders M.; Davies, Gareth E.; de Geus, Eco J. C.; De Jager, Philip L.; De Zubicaray, Greig I.; Delanty, Norman; Depondt, Chantal; DeStefano, Anita L.; Dillman, Allissa; Djurovic, Srdjan; Donohoe, Gary; Drevets, Wayne C.; Duggirala, Ravi; Dyer, Thomas D.; Erk, Susanne; Espeseth, Thomas; Evans, Denis A.; Fedko, Iryna; Fernandez, Guillen; Ferrucci, Luigi; Fisher, Simon E.; Fleischman, Debra A.; Ford, Ian; Foroud, Tatiana M.; Fox, Peter T.; Francks, Clyde; Fukunaga, Masaki; Gibbs, J. Raphael; Glahn, David C.; Gollub, Randy L.; Goring, Harald H. H.; Grabe, Hans J.; Green, Robert C.; Gruber, Oliver; Gudnason, Vilmundur; Guelfi, Sebastian; Hansell, Narelle K.; Hardy, John; Hartman, Catharina A.; Hashimoto, Ryota; Hegenscheid, Katrin; Heinz, Andreas; Le Hellard, Stephanie; Hernandez, Dena G.; Heslenfeld, Dirk J.; Ho, Beng-Choon; Hoekstra, Pieter J.; Hoffmann, Wolfgang; Hofman, Albert; Holsboer, Florian; Homuth, Georg; Hosten, Norbert; Hottenga, Jouke-Jan; Pol, Hilleke E. Hulshoff; Ikeda, Masashi; Ikram, M. Kamran; Jack, Clifford R., Jr.; Jenldnson, Mark; Johnson, Robert; Jonsson, Erik G.; Jukema, J. Wouter; Kahn, Rene S.; Kanai, Ryota; Kloszewska, Iwona; Knopman, David S.; Kochunov, Peter; Kwok, John B.; Lawrie, Stephen M.; Lemaitre, Herve; Liu, Xinmin; Longo, Dan L.; Longstreth, W. T., Jr.; Lopez, Oscar L.; Lovestone, Simon; Martinez, Oliver; Martinot, Jean-Luc; Mattay, Venkata S.; McDonald, Colm; McIntosh, Andrew M.; McMahon, Katie L.; McMahon, Francis J.; Mecocci, Patrizia; Melle, Ingrid; Meyer-Lindenberg, Andreas; Mohnke, Sebastian; Montgomery, Grant W.; Morris, Derek W.; Mosley, Thomas H.; Muhleisen, Thomas W.; Mueller-Myhsok, Bertram; Nalls, Michael A.; Nauck, Matthias; Nichols, Thomas E.; Niessen, Wiro J.; Noethen, Markus M.; Nyberg, Lars; Ohi, Kazutaka; Olvera, Rene L.; Ophoff, Roel A.; Pandolfo, Massimo; Paus, Tomas; Pausova, Zdenka; Penninx, Brenda W. J. H.; Pike, G. Bruce; Potkin, Steven G.; Psaty, Bruce M.; Reppermund, Simone; Rietschel, Marcella; Roffman, Joshua L.; Romanczuk-Seiferth, Nina; Rotter, Jerome I.; Ryten, Mina; Sacco, Ralph L.; Sachdev, Perminder S.; Saykin, Andrew J.; Schmidt, Reinhold; Schofield, Peter R.; Sigurdsson, Sigurdur; Simmons, Andrew; Singleton, Andrew; Sisodiya, Sanjay M.; Smith, Colin; Smoller, Jordan W.; Soininen, Hindu.; Srikanth, Velandai; Steen, Vidar M.; Stott, David J.; Sussmann, Jessika E.; Thalamuthu, Anbupalam; Tiemeier, Henning; Toga, Arthur W.; Traynor, Bryan J.; Troncoso, Juan; Turner, Jessica A.; Tzourio, Christophe; Uitterlinden, Andre G.; Hernandez, Maria C. Valdes; van der Brug, Marcel; van der Lugt, Aad; Van der Wee, Nic J. A.; van Duijn, Cornelia M.; Van Haren, Neeltje E. M.; van't Ent, Dennis; Van Tol, Marie Jose; Vardarajan, Badri N.; Veltman, Dick J.; Vernooij, Meike W.; Voelzke, Henry; Walter, Henrik; Wardlaw, Joanna M.; Wassink, Thomas H.; Weale, Michael E.; Weinberger, Daniel R.; Weiner, Michael W.; Wen, Wei; Westman, Eric; White, Tonya; Wong, Tien Y.; Wright, Clinton B.; Zielke, H. Ronald; Zonderman, Alan B.; Deary, Ian J.; DeCarli, Charles; Schmidt, Helena; Martin, Nicholas G.; de Craen, Anton J. M.; Wright, Margaret J.; Launer, Lenore J.; Schumann, Gunter; Fornage, Myriam; Franke, Barbara; Debette, Stephanie; Medland, Sarah E.; Ikram, M. Arfan; Thompson, Paul M. |
|---|---|
| Journal | NATURE NEUROSCIENCE |
| Pages | 1569-1582 |
| Volume | 19 |
| Date | 1/12/2016 |
| Grant ID | HL105756 |
| Funding Body | National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute |
| URL | http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=10.1038/nn.4398 |