RYAN BOGDAN: "USING GENETICS TO TEST THE PLAUSIBILITY OF CAUSALITY/PREDISPOSITION IN NEUROIMAGING"
Alcohol consumption accounts for 5% of global disease. Using family and longitudinal data from three neuroimaging samples (total N=2,423) spanning childhood/adolescence to middle age, we demonstrate that replicable and genetically-conferred reductions in gray matter volumes of frontal gyri prospectively predict alcohol use. Further, gene expression in these regions from two post-mortem datasets is associated with genetic risk for alcohol consumption (UK Biobank GWAS). Applying genetic methodology to neuroimaging datasets can inform the plausibility of causation/predisposition.
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