Alex Fornito1,2, Andrew Zalesky2, Danielle Bassett1, David Meunier1, Murat Ycel2, Stephen J. Wood2, Deborah Nertney3, Bryan Mowry3, Christos Pantelis2, Ed Bullmore1
1Brain Mapping Unit, Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, UK; 2Melbourne Neuropsychiatry Centre, Department of Psychiatry, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia; 3Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
The connectivity network of the human brain evolved to balance the competing priorities of maximizing efficiency of information transfer while minimizing wiring cost. In this study, we quantified the degree to which individual differences in the cost-efficiency of cortical functional networks are attributable to genetic factors using graph analytic techniques applied to resting fMRI data acquired in twins. Genetic factors accounted for approximately 91% of the variance in global network cost-efficiency, with some cortical regions under more genetic influence than others. These findings indicate that economical properties of cortical networks are highly heritable.
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