Genetic and Environmental Influences on Lobar Brain Structures in Twins With Autism

This publication is included in the Autistic Autism Scholarship Project. one author of this publication is identified as autistic in the project.

About the autistic author marker

Hegarty, J. P., Lazzeroni, L. C., Raman, M. M., Pegoraro, L. F. L., Monterrey, J. C., Cleveland, S. C., Hallmayer, J. F., Wolke, O. N., Phillips, J. M., Reiss, A. L., & Hardan, A. Y. (2019). Genetic and Environmental Influences on Lobar Brain Structures in Twins With Autism. Cerebral Cortex, 30(3), 1946-1956. https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhz215

Publication date: 23 Aug 2019 Added to AutiHub: 5 Oct 2026 Type: Article Article language: English

This publication is integrated into AutiHub through:

Authors

Publication authors
11
Publication authors identified as autistic
1 / 11 (9.1%)

Abstract

Abstract This investigation examined whether the variation of cerebral structure is associated with genetic or environmental factors in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) compared with typically developing (TD) controls. T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging scans were obtained from twin pairs (aged 6–15 years) in which at least one twin was diagnosed with ASD or both were TD. Good quality data were available from 30 ASD, 18 discordant, and 34 TD pairs (n = 164). Structural measures (volume, cortical thickness, and surface area) were generated with FreeSurfer, and ACE modeling was completed. Lobar structures were primarily genetically mediated in TD twins (a2 = 0.60–0.89), except thickness of the temporal (a2 = 0.33 [0.04, 0.63]) and occipital lobes (c2 = 0.61 [0.45, 0.77]). Lobar structures were also predominantly genetically mediated in twins with ASD (a2 = 0.70–1.00); however, thickness of the frontal (c2 = 0.81 [0.71, 0.92]), temporal (c2 = 0.77 [0.60, 0.93]), and parietal lobes (c2 = 0.87 [0.77, 0.97]), and frontal gray matter (GM) volume (c2 = 0.79 [0.63, 0.95]), were associated with environmental factors. Conversely, occipital thickness (a2 = 0.93 [0.75, 1.11]) did not exhibit the environmental contributions that were found in controls. Differences in GM volume were associated with social communication impairments for the frontal (r = 0.52 [0.18, 0.75]), temporal (r = 0.61 [0.30, 0.80]), and parietal lobes (r = 0.53 [0.19, 0.76]). To our knowledge, this is the first investigation to suggest that environmental factors influence GM to a larger extent in children with ASD, especially in the frontal lobe.

Bibliography cited by this reference

Cited references are imported from external metadata sources when they are available. The list may be partial.

Cited bibliography overview

These indicators describe the bibliography cited by this publication. An author name is counted each time it appears in one cited reference, so the same person can be counted more than once. Names not yet linked to an author already present in AutiHub are treated as unknown, not as non-autistic. Last computed: 17 Oct 2026 01:01.

Cited references
56
With a DOI
50
Without a DOI, from raw bibliography text
6
2 / 56 (3.6%) cited references include at least one author identified as autistic.
References with data to complete
1 / 56 (1.8%)
References with detected author names
55 / 56 (98.2%)
Without detected author names
1
Without a structured title
0
Without a stable identifier
6
References with raw author names still to review
0
References with external metadata lookup issues
0
These indicators apply to cited references displayed on this page, after technical duplicates have been merged. A reference without a DOI can still support author statistics when a title and author names are available.
Author names detected in the cited bibliography
374
From DOI or external metadata
374
From validated raw bibliography text
0
Raw names already validated
0
Raw names still to review
0
67 / 374 (17.9%) names are linked to an author already present in AutiHub. 307 / 374 (82.1%) names are not yet linked.
Names linked to a person identified as autistic
2 / 374 (0.5%)
Calculated across all author names detected in the cited bibliography. Among names linked to an author already present in AutiHub: 2 / 67 (3.0%). Distinct people identified as autistic: 1 / 327 (0.3%).
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