Brain structural differences in monozygotic twins discordant for body mass index

Weise, Christopher; Bachmann, Tobias; Pleger, Burkhard

doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2019.07.019

Item

ITEM ACTIONSEXPORT

Add to Basket

Please note that a newer version of this item is available:
https://pure.mpg.de/pubman/item/item_3156252_5

DetailsSummary

Released

Journal Article

Brain structural differences in monozygotic twins discordant for body mass index

MPS-Authors

/persons/resource/persons19926

Pleger, Burkhard
External Organizations;
Department Neurology, MPI for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Max Planck Society;

External Resource

No external resources are shared

Fulltext (restricted access)

There are currently no full texts shared for your IP range.

Fulltext (public)

There are no public fulltexts stored in PuRe

Supplementary Material (public)

There is no public supplementary material available

Citation

Weise, C., Bachmann, T., & Pleger, B. (2019). Brain structural differences in monozygotic twins discordant for body mass index. NeuroImage, 201: 116006. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2019.07.019.

Cite as: https://hdl.handle.net/21.11116/0000-0004-9189-D

Abstract

Background:Substantial efforts have been made to investigate the neurobiological underpinnings of human obesity with a number of studies indicating a profoundinfluence of increased body weight on brain structure. Although body weight is known to be highly heritable, uncertainty remains regarding the respective contri-bution of genetic and environmental influences.Methods:In this study we used structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data from the Human Connectome Project (HCP). Voxel-based morphometry (VBM) wasapplied to study BMI-associated differences in gray matter volume (GMV) within monozygotic (MZ) twin pairs discordant for BMI (ΔBMI>2.5 kg*m2,n¼68 pairs).In addition, we investigated the relationship ofΔBMI (entire range) with GMV differences within the entire sample of MZ twin pairs (n¼153 pairs).Results:Analyses of BMI discordant twin pairs yielded less GMV in heavier twin siblings (p<0.05 FWETFCE; pairedt-Test) within the occipital and cerebellar cortex, theprefrontal cortex and the bilateral striatum including the nucleus accumbens. A highly converging pattern was found in regression analyses across the entire sample ofMZ twin pairs, withΔBMI being associated with less GMV in heavier MZ twins.Conclusion:While MZ twins share the same genetic background, ourfindings indicate that non-genetic influences and the mere presence of a higher BMI constituterelevant factors in the context of body weight related structural brain alterations.