Open AccessGenetic influences on prefrontal activation during a verbal fluency task in children: A twin study using near‐infrared spectroscopy
Author(s) -
Sakakibara Eisuke,
Takizawa Ryu,
Kawakubo Yuki,
Kuwabara Hitoshi,
Kono Toshiaki,
Hamada Kasumi,
Okuhata Shiho,
Eguchi Satoshi,
IshiiTakahashi Ayaka,
Kasai Kiyoto
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
brain and behavior
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.915
H-Index - 41
ISSN - 2162-3279
DOI - 10.1002/brb3.980
Subject(s) - verbal fluency test , heritability , prefrontal cortex , psychology , developmental psychology , audiology , twin study , monozygotic twin , blood oxygenation , cognition , neuroscience , medicine , functional magnetic resonance imaging , neuropsychology , genetics , biology
Objective The genetic and environmental influences on prefrontal function in childhood are underinvestigated due to the difficulty of measuring prefrontal function in young subjects, for which near‐infrared spectroscopy ( NIRS ) is a suitable functional neuroimaging technique that facilitates the easy and noninvasive measurement of blood oxygenation in the superficial cerebral cortices. Method Using a two‐channel NIRS arrangement, we measured changes in bilateral prefrontal blood oxygenation during a category version of the verbal fluency task ( VFT ) in 27 monozygotic twin pairs and 12 same‐sex dizygotic twin pairs ages 5–17 years. We also assessed the participant's full‐scale intelligence quotient ( FIQ ) and retrieved parental socioeconomic status ( SES ). Classical structured equation modeling was used to estimate the heritability. Results The heritability of VFT ‐related brain activation was estimated to be 44% and 37% in the right and left prefrontal regions, respectively. We also identified a significant genetic contribution (74%) to FIQ , but did not to VFT task performance. Parental SES was not correlated with FIQ , task performance, or task‐related prefrontal activation. Conclusions This finding provides further evidence that variance in prefrontal function has a genetic component since childhood and highlights brain function, as measured by NIRS , as a promising candidate for endophenotyping neurodevelopmental disorders.