Common brain disorders are associated with heritable patterns of apparent aging of the brain

Common risk factors for psychiatric and other brain disorders are likely to converge on biological pathways influencing the development and maintenance of brain structure and function across life. Using structural MRI data from 45,615 individuals aged 3-96 years, we demonstrate distinct patterns of apparent brain aging in several brain disorders and reveal genetic pleiotropy between apparent brain aging in healthy individuals and common brain disorders

Publisher Correction: Common brain disorders are associated with heritable patterns of apparent aging of the brain (Nature Neuroscience, (2019), 22, 10, (1617-1623), 10.1038/s41593-019-0471-7)

In the version of this article initially published, spaces were missing in the names of Stephanie Le Hellard and Pasquale Di Carlo. The errors have been corrected in the HTML and PDF versions of the article

The genetic architecture of human brainstem structures and their involvement in common brain disorders

Brainstem regions support vital bodily functions, yet their genetic architectures and involvement in common brain disorders remain understudied. Here, using imaging-genetics data from 27,034 individuals, we identified brainstem-associated genetic loci, including the first linked to midbrain, pons, and medulla oblongata volumes, and mapped them to 305 genes. We detected genetic overlap between brainstem volumes and eight psychiatric and neurological disorders. In additional clinical data from 5,062 individuals with common brain disorders and 11,257 healthy controls, we observed differential volume alterations in schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, multiple sclerosis, mild cognitive impairment, dementia, and Parkinson’s disease, supporting the relevance of brainstem regions and their genetic architectures in common brain disorders