Genetics of white matter tracts published in Science

In work led by Hongtu Zhu and Bingxin Zhao, we explored how genetic variation influences brain region connectivity. In a sample size of over 43,000 individuals, many novel loci associated with white matter tracts were detected. Interestingly, some tracts showed a genetic correlation to schizophrenia, finally providing a solid genetic correlation to this disorder using a brain imaging based phenotype. Also, genetic variants within regulatory elements of glia, but not neurons, strongly influence white matter tracts. This provides a way of understanding which cell types are influencing macroscale brain structure traits. You can read more about this here.

DTI.png