Michael D. Grant

TL;DR: It is demonstrated that cortical volume measures combine at least 2 distinct sources of genetic influences, and using volume in a genetically informative study, or as an endophenotype for a disorder, may confound the underlying genetic architecture of brain structure.

TL;DR: Using a data-driven, fuzzy clustering technique with magnetic resonance imaging data from 406 twins, this work parceled cortical surface area into genetic subdivisions, creating a human brain atlas based solely on genetically informative data.

TL;DR: The results did not indicate lateralized heritability differences or greater genetic influences on the size of regions underlying higher cognitive functions, which provides key information for imaging genetic studies and other studies of brain phenotypes and endophenotypes.

TL;DR: The Vietnam Era twin study of aging (VETSA) as mentioned in this paper employs a multitrait multimethod approach to cognitive assessment to focus on the genetic and environmental contributions to cognitive processes over time.

TL;DR: These results provide strong evidence of regionally specific patterns rather than a single, global genetic factor in cortical thickness, which can serve as a step toward identifying novel phenotypes for genetic association studies of psychiatric disorders and normal and pathological cognitive aging.