Genetic architecture of subcortical brain structures

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.

This effort was led by Claudia Satizabal and Hieab Adams, and led to the discovery of 40 novel loci related to the size of subcortical structures. The study was published in Nature Genetics.

The full paper can be found here.