Quantitative genetic modeling of lateral ventricular shape and volume using multi-atlas fluid image alignment in twins

Despite substantial progress in measuring the 3D profile of anatomical variations in the human brain, their genetic and environmental causes remain enigmatic. We developed an automated system to identify and map genetic and environmental effects on brain structure in large brain MRI databases1 . We applied our multi-template segmentation approach ("Multi-Atlas Fluid Image Alignment") to fluidly propagate hand-labeled parameterized surface meshes into 116 scans of twins (60 identical, 56 fraternal), labeling the lateral ventricles. Mesh surfaces were averaged within subjects to minimize segmentation error. We fitted quantitative genetic models at each of 30,000 surface points to measure the proportion of shape variance attributable to (1) genetic differences among subjects, (2) environmental influences unique to each individual, and (3) shared environmental effects. Surface-based statistical maps revealed 3D heritability patterns, and their significance, with and without adju...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2008
• Where: ISBI
• Authors: Yi-Yu Chou, Natasha Lepore, Marina Barysheva, Ming-Chang Chiang, Katie McMahon, Greig I. de Zubicaray, Matthew Meredith, Margaret J. Wright, Arthur W. Toga, Paul M. Thompson
• Keywords: ISBI 2008, Large Brain Mri, Medical Imaging, Quantitative Genetic Models, Versus Genetic Influences