Effects of a neurodevelopmental genes based polygenic risk score for schizophrenia and single gene variants on brain structure in non-clinical subjects: A preliminary report

Abstract

We tested whether a polygenic risk score integrating the effects of genes affecting neurodevelopment is associated to brain structural variation in healthy subjects. We acquired magnetic resonance imaging and genetic data of 167 healthy adults and computed a neurodevelopmental polygenic risk score (nPRS). We correlated the nPRS with local gyrification, cortical thickness and grey matter density and explored effects of single nucleotide polymorphisms included in the score. We did not find significant correlations of this nPRS with either measure. Individuals with the risk allele at rs11139497 show increases in cortical thickness (p < 0.05, FWE corrected) of the left superior temporal gyrus.

Keywords: Cortical thickness; Gyrification; Neurodevelopment; Polygenic risk score; Schizophrenia; Voxel-based morphometry.