We employ a genetic-imaging approach to examine the underlying genetic basis of magnetic susceptibility reductions at a major locus of pathophysiology in Gilles de la Tourette syndrome (GTS). Voxel-wise statistical differences of motor-striatal susceptibility exhibited significant associations with the expression profile of iron-related gene-sets extracted from the Allen Human Brain Atlas, thus suggesting that the expression of iron-related genes coincides with patterns of susceptibility reductions in GTS. This work supports previous studies relating magnetic susceptibility to brain iron and provides an example of an analytic strategy in which valuable insights can be gleaned by exploring associations between gene-expression and image-derived phenotypes.
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