Biology subjects

Desrivieres, S.

Publications and source records attributed to Desrivieres, S..

29 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

bioRxiv2022

Federated analysis in COINSTAC reveals functional network connectivity and spectral links to smoking and alcohol consumption in nearly 2,000 adolescent brains

With the growth of decentralized/federated analysis approaches in neuroimaging, the opportunities to study brain disorders using data from multiple sites has grown multi-fold. One such initiative is the Neuromark, a fully automated spatially constrained independent component analysis (ICA) that is used to link brain network abnormalities among different datasets, studies, and disorders while leveraging subject-specific networks. In this study, we implement the neuromark pipeline in COINSTAC, an open-source neuroimaging framework for collaborative/decentralized analysis. Decentralized analysis of nearly 2000 resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging datasets collected at different sites across two cohorts and co-located in different countries was performed to study the resting brain functional network connectivity changes in adolescents who smoke and consume alcohol. Results showed hypoconnectivity across the majority of networks including sensory, default mode, and subcortical domains, more for alcohol than smoking, and decreased low frequency power. These findings suggest that global reduced synchronization is associated with both tobacco and alcohol use. This work demonstrates the utility and incentives associated with large-scale decentralized collaborations spanning multiple sites.

bioinformatics↗

bioRxiv2021

Brain charts for the human lifespan

Over the past few decades, neuroimaging has become a ubiquitous tool in basic research and clinical studies of the human brain. However, no reference standards currently exist to quantify individual differences in neuroimaging metrics over time, in contrast to growth charts for anthropometric traits such as height and weight1. Here, we built an interactive resource to benchmark brain morphology, www.brainchart.io, derived from any current or future sample of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data. With the goal of basing these reference charts on the largest and most inclusive dataset available, we aggregated 123,984 MRI scans from 101,457 participants aged from 115 days post-conception through 100 postnatal years, across more than 100 primary research studies. Cerebrum tissue volumes and other global or regional MRI metrics were quantified by centile scores, relative to non-linear trajectories2 of brain structural changes, and rates of change, over the lifespan. Brain charts identified previously unreported neurodevelopmental milestones3; showed high stability of individual centile scores over longitudinal assessments; and demonstrated robustness to technical and methodological differences between primary studies. Centile scores showed increased heritability compared to non-centiled MRI phenotypes, and provided a standardised measure of atypical brain structure that revealed patterns of neuroanatomical variation across neurological and psychiatric disorders. In sum, brain charts are an essential first step towards robust quantification of individual deviations from normative trajectories in multiple, commonly-used neuroimaging phenotypes. Our collaborative study proves the principle that brain charts are achievable on a global scale over the entire lifespan, and applicable to analysis of diverse developmental and clinical effects on human brain structure. Furthermore, we provide open resources to support future advances towards adoption of brain charts as standards for quantitative benchmarking of typical or atypical brain MRI scans.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2021

Adolescent to young adult longitudinal development of subcortical volumes in two European sites with four waves

Adolescent subcortical structural brain development might underlie psychopathological symptoms, which often emerge in adolescence. At the same time, sex differences exist in psychopathology, which might be mirrored in underlying sex differences in structural development. However, previous studies showed inconsistencies in subcortical trajectories and potential sex differences. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the subcortical structural trajectories and their sex differences across adolescence using for the first time a single cohort design, the same quality control procedure, software and a general additive mixed modeling approach. We investigated two large European sites from ages 14 to 24 with 503 participants and 1408 total scans from France and Germany as part of the IMAGEN project including four waves of data acquisition. We found significantly larger volumes in males versus females in both sites and across all seven subcortical regions. Sex differences in age-related trajectories were observed across all regions in both sites. Our findings provide further evidence of sex differences in longitudinal adolescent brain development of subcortical regions and thus might eventually support the relationship of underlying brain development and different adolescent psychopathology in boys and girls.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2020

Genetic variation in CSMD1 affects amygdala connectivity and prosocial behavior

The amygdala is one of the most widely connected structures in the primate brain and plays a key role in social and emotional behavior. Here, we present the first genome-wide association study (GWAS) of whole-brain resting-state amygdala networks to discern whether connectivity in these networks could serve as an endophenotype for social behavior. Leveraging published resting-state amygdala networks as a priori endophenotypes in a GWAS meta-analysis of two adolescent cohorts, we identified a common polymorphism on chr.8p23.2 (rs10105357 A/G, MAF (G)=0.35) associated with stronger connectivity in the medial amygdala network (beta=0.20, p=2.97x10-8). This network contains regions that support reward processes and affiliative behavior. People carrying two copies of the minor allele for rs10105357 participate in more prosocial behaviors (t=2.644, p=0.008) and have higher CSMD1 expression in the temporal cortex (t=3.281, p=0.002) than people with one or no copy of the allele. In post-mortem brains across the lifespan, we found that CSMD1 expression is relatively high in the amygdala (2.79 fold higher than white matter, p=1.80x10-29), particularly so for nuclei in the medial amygdala, reaching a maximum in later stages of development. Amygdala network endophenotyping has the potential to accelerate genetic discovery in disorders of social function, such as autism, in which CSMD1 may serve as a diagnostic and therapeutic target.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2020

Assessing Study Reproducibility through MMRI: A Novel Approach for Large-scale High-throughput Association Studies

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) technology has been increasingly used in large-scale association studies. Reproducibility of statistically significant findings generated by MRI-based association studies, especially structural MRI (sMRI) and functional MRI (fMRI), has been recently heavily debated. However, there is still a lack of overall reproducibility assessment for MRI-based association studies. It is also crucial to elucidate the relationship between overall reproducibility and sample size in an experimental design. In this study, we proposed an overall reproducibility index for large-scale high-throughput MRI-based association studies. We performed the overall reproducibility assessments for several recent large sMRI/fMRI databases and observed satisfactory overall reproducibility. Furthermore, we performed the sample size evaluation for the purpose of achieving a desirable overall reproducibility. Additionally, we evaluated the overall reproducibility of GMV changes for UKB vs. PPMI and UKB vs. HCP. We demonstrated that both sample size and some experimental factors play important roles in the overall reproducibility for different experiments. In summary, a systematic assessment of overall reproducibility is fundamental and crucial in the current large-scale high-throughput MRI-based research.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2020

Dynamics of Brain Structure and its Genetic Architecture over the Lifespan

Human brain structure changes throughout our lives. Altered brain growth or rates of decline are implicated in a vast range of psychiatric, developmental, and neurodegenerative diseases. Here, we identified common genetic variants that affect rates of brain growth or atrophy, in the first genome-wide association meta-analysis of changes in brain morphology across the lifespan. Longitudinal MRI data from 15,640 individuals were used to compute rates of change for 15 brain structures. The most robustly identified genes GPR139, DACH1 and APOE are associated with metabolic processes. We demonstrate global genetic overlap with depression, schizophrenia, cognitive functioning, insomnia, height, body mass index and smoking. Gene-set findings implicate both early brain development and neurodegenerative processes in the rates of brain changes. Identifying variants involved in structural brain changes may help to determine biological pathways underlying optimal and dysfunctional brain development and ageing.

genetics↗

bioRxiv2019

Independent effects of socioeconomic status and genetics on adolescent cognition and brain development.

Genetic factors and socioeconomic (SES) inequalities play a large role in educational attainment, and both have been associated with variations in brain structure and cognition. However, genetics and SES are correlated, and no prior study has assessed their neural associations independently. Here we used polygenic score for educational attainment (EduYears-PGS) as well as SES, in a longitudinal study of 551 adolescents, to tease apart genetic and environmental associations with brain development and cognition. Subjects received a structural MRI scan at ages 14 and 19. At both time-points, they performed three working memory (WM) tasks. SES and EduYears-PGS were correlated (r = 0.27) and had both common and independent associations with brain structure and cognition. Specifically, lower SES was related to less total cortical surface area and lower WM. EduYears-PGS was also related to total cortical surface area, but in addition had a regional association with surface area in the right parietal lobe, a region related to non-verbal cognitive functions, including mathematics, spatial cognition, and WM. SES, but not EduYears-PGS, was related to a change in total cortical surface area from age 14 to 19. This is the first study demonstrating a regional association of EduYears-PGS and the independent prediction of SES on cognitive function and brain development. It suggests that the SES inequalities, in particular parental education, are related to global aspects of cortical development, and exert a persistent influence on brain development during adolescence. Significance statementThe influence of socioeconomic (SES) inequalities on brain and cognitive development is a hotly debated topic. However, previous studies have not considered that genetic factors overlap with SES. Here we showed, for the first time, that SES and EduYears-PGS (a score from thousands of genetic markers for educational attainment) have independent associations with both cognition and global cortical surface area in adolescents. EduYears-PGS also had a localized association in the brain: the intraparietal sulcus, a region related to non-verbal intelligence. In contrast, SES had global, but not regional, associations, and these persisted throughout adolescence. This suggests that the influence of SES inequalities is widespread - a result that opposes the current paradigm and can help inform policies in education.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2019

Satellite Imaging of Global Urbanicity relate to Adolescent Brain Development and Behavior

Urbanicity, the impact of living in urban areas, is among the greatest environmental challenges for mental health. While urbanicity might be distinct in different sociocultural conditions and geographic locations, there are likely to exist common features shared in different areas of the globe. Understanding these common and specific relations of urbanicity with human brain and behavior will enable to assess the impact of urbanicity on mental disorders, especially in childhood and adolescence, where prevention and early interventions are likely to be most effective.\n\nWe constructed from satellite-based remote sensing data a factor for urbanicity that was highly correlated with population density ground data. This factor, UrbanSat was utilized in the Chinese CHIMGEN sample (N=831) and the longitudinal European IMAGEN cohort (N=810) to investigate if exposure to urbanicity during childhood and adolescence is associated with differences in brain structure and function in young adults, and if these changes are linked to behavior.\n\nUrbanicity was found negatively correlated with medial prefrontal cortex volume and positively correlated with cerebellar vermis volume in young adults from both China and Europe. We found an increased correlation of urbanicity with functional network connectivity within- and between- brain networks in Chinese compared to European participants. Urbanicity was highly correlated with a measure of perceiving a situation from the perspective of others, as well as symptoms of depression in both datasets. These correlations were mediated by the structural and functional brain changes observed. Susceptibility to urbanicity was greatest in two developmental windows during mid-childhood and adolescence.\n\nUsing innovative technology, we were able to probe the relationship between urban upbringing with brain change and behavior in different sociocultural conditions and geographic locations. Our findings help to identify shared and distinct determinants of adolescent brain development and mental health in different regions of the world, thus contributing to targeted prevention and early-intervention programs for young people in their unique environment. Our approach may be relevant for public health, policy and urban planning globally.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2019

Neurobehavioural characterisation and stratification of reinforcement-related behaviour

AbstractReinforcement-related cognitive processes, such as reward processing, impulsiveness and emotional processing are critical components of externalising and internalising behaviours. It is unclear to what extent each of these processes contributes to individual behavioural symptoms, how their neural substrates give rise to distinct behavioural outcomes, and if neural profiles across different reinforcement-related processes might differentiate individual behaviours. We created a statistical framework that enabled us to directly compare functional brain activation during reward anticipation, motor inhibition and viewing of emotional faces in the European IMAGEN cohort of 2000 14-year-old adolescents. We observe significant correlations and modulation of reward anticipation and motor inhibition networks in hyperactivity, impulsivity, inattention and conduct symptoms, and describe neural signatures across neuroimaging tasks that differentiate these behaviours. We thus characterise shared and distinct functional brain activation patterns that underlie different externalising symptoms and identify neural stratification markers, while accounting for clinically observed co-morbidity.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2019

Sleep, regional grey matter volumes, and psychological functioning in adolescents

Changing sleep rhythms in adolescents often lead to sleep deficits and increased variability in sleep schedules. The adolescent brain, and in particular the rapidly developing structures involved in emotional control, are vulnerable to external and internal factors. In our previous study in adolescents at age 14, we observed a strong relationship between weekend sleep schedules and regional medial prefrontal cortex grey matter volumes. Here, we aimed to assess whether this relationship remained in this group of adolescents of the general population at the age of 16 (n=101; mean age 16.8 years; 55% girls). We further examined grey matter volumes in the hippocampi and the amygdalae, calculated with voxel-based morphometry. In addition, we investigated the relationship between regional grey matter volumes with psychological functioning. Sleep was assessed with self-reports and psychological functioning with the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire and tests on working memory and impulsivity. Later weekend wake-up times were associated with smaller grey matter volumes in the medial prefrontal cortex and the amygdalae, and greater weekend delays in wake-up time were associated with smaller grey matter volumes in the right hippocampus and amygdala. The medial prefrontal cortex region mediated the correlation between weekend wake up time and both externalising and internalising symptoms. Paying attention to regular sleep habits during adolescence could act as a protective factor against the emergence of psychopathology via enabling favourable brain development.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2017

Genetic Architecture of Subcortical Brain Structures in Over 40,000 Individuals Worldwide

Subcortical brain structures are integral to motion, consciousness, emotions, and learning. We identified common genetic variation related to the volumes of nucleus accumbens, amygdala, brainstem, caudate nucleus, globus pallidus, putamen, and thalamus, using genome-wide association analyses in over 40,000 individuals from CHARGE, ENIGMA and the UK-Biobank. We show that variability in subcortical volumes is heritable, and identify 25 significantly associated loci (20 novel). Annotation of these loci utilizing gene expression, methylation, and neuropathological data identified 62 candidate genes implicated in neurodevelopment, synaptic signaling, axonal transport, apoptosis, and susceptibility to neurological disorders. This set of genes is significantly enriched for Drosophila orthologs associated with neurodevelopmental phenotypes, suggesting evolutionarily conserved mechanisms. Our findings uncover novel biology and potential drug targets underlying brain development and disease.

genetics↗