Open AccessTwin‐based heritability of actimetry traits
Author(s) -
Gehrman Philip R.,
Ghorai Arpita,
Goodman Matthew,
McCluskey Richard,
Barilla Holly,
Almasy Laura,
Roenneberg Till,
Bucan Maja
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
genes, brain and behavior
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.315
H-Index - 91
eISSN - 1601-183X
pISSN - 1601-1848
DOI - 10.1111/gbb.12569
Subject(s) - heritability , endophenotype , bonferroni correction , twin study , circadian rhythm , biology , genetic correlation , genetics , psychology , genetic variation , statistics , cognition , mathematics , neuroscience , gene
There is a critical need for phenotypes with substantial heritability that can be used as endophenotypes in behavioral genetic studies. Activity monitoring, called actimetry, has potential as a means of assessing sleep and circadian rhythm traits that could serve as endophenotypes relevant to a range of psychopathologies. This study examined a range of actimetry traits for heritability using a classic twin design. The sample consisted of 195 subjects from 45 monozygotic (MZ) and 50 dizygotic (DZ) twin pairs aged 16‐40 years. Subjects wore both a research‐grade actimeter ( GENEActiv ) and a consumer‐oriented device ( FitBit ) for 2 weeks. Sleep and circadian traits were extracted from GENEActiv data using PennZzz and ChronoSapiens software programs. Sleep statistics for a limited number of FitBit ‐collected traits were generated by its accompanying mobile app. Broad sense heritability was computed on a set of 33 MZ and 38 DZ twin pairs with complete data using both OpenMX and SOLAR software. These analyses yielded a large number of actimetry‐derived traits, 20 of which showed high heritability (h 2 > 0.6), seven of which remain significant after Bonferroni correction. These results indicate that actimetry enables assessing a range of phenotypes with substantial heritability that may be useful as endophenotypes for genetic studies.