Virtual Ontogeny of Cortical Growth Preceding Mental Illness

[Background]: Morphology of the human cerebral cortex differs across psychiatric disorders, with neurobiology and developmental origins mostly undetermined. Deviations in the tangential growth of the cerebral cortex during pre/perinatal periods may be reflected in individual variations in cortical surface area later in life.
[Methods]: Interregional profiles of group differences in surface area between cases and controls were generated using T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging from 27,359 individuals including those with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, autism spectrum disorder, bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder, schizophrenia, and high general psychopathology (through the Child Behavior Checklist). Similarity of interregional profiles of group differences in surface area and prenatal cell-specific gene expression was assessed.
[Results]: Across the 11 cortical regions, group differences in cortical area for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, schizophrenia, and Child Behavior Checklist were dominant in multimodal association cortices. The same interregional profiles were also associated with interregional profiles of (prenatal) gene expression specific to proliferative cells, namely radial glia and intermediate progenitor cells (greater expression, larger difference), as well as differentiated cells, namely excitatory neurons and endothelial and mural cells (greater expression, smaller difference). Finally, these cell types were implicated in known pre/perinatal risk factors for psychosis. Genes coexpressed with radial glia were enriched with genes implicated in congenital abnormalities, birth weight, hypoxia, and starvation. Genes coexpressed with endothelial and mural genes were enriched with genes associated with maternal hypertension and preterm birth.
[Conclusions]: Our findings support a neurodevelopmental model of vulnerability to mental illness whereby prenatal risk factors acting through cell-specific processes lead to deviations from typical brain development during pregnancy.
This work was supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG Grant Nos. HA7070/2-2, HA7070/3, HA7070/4 [to TH]) and IZKF of the medical faculty of Münster (Grants No. Dan3/012/17 [to UD] and MzH 3/020/20 [to TH]), and NHMRC projects (Grant No. 1064643 [to BJH] and 1024570 [to CGD]). The CIAM study was supported by the University of Cape Town Research Committee, South African National Research Foundation, and the South African Medical Research Council (principal investigator [PI], Fleur M. Howells) and Grant No. R01MH117601 (to NJ). This work was funded by the German Research Foundation (Grant Nos. FOR2107 JA 1890/7-1 and FOR2107 JA 1890/7-2 [to AJ]) and Swinburne University scholarship/Australian Postgraduate Award (to JK). Collection of the COGSBD cohort was funded by the Jack Brockhoff Foundation, University of Melbourne, Barbara Dicker Brain Sciences Foundation, Rebecca L Cooper Foundation, and the Society of Mental Health Research (to JK). This work was funded by the German Research Foundation (Grant Nos. FOR2107 KI588/14-1 and FOR2107 KI588/14-2 [to TK]). The St. Göran study was supported by grants from the Swedish Research Council (Grant No. 2018-02653 [to ML]), the Swedish foundation for Strategic Research (Grant No. KF10-0039 [to ML]), the Swedish Brain foundation (Grant No. FO2020-0261 [to ML]), and the Swedish Government under the LUA/ALF agreement (Grant Nos. ALF 20170019 and ALFGBG-716801 [to ML]). This work was supported by RFBR (Grant No. 20-013-00748 [to IL, AST]) and funded by the Health Research Board (Grant No. HRA_POR/2011/100 [to CM]). The Australian Schizophrenia Research Bank (ASRB) was supported by the NHMRC (Enabling Grant No. 386500), the Pratt Foundation, Ramsay Health Care, the Viertel Charitable Foundation, and the Schizophrenia Research Institute. Chief investigators for ASRB were VC, US, RSc, AJ, BM, PTM, SVC, FH, and CPa. This work was supported by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (Grant Nos. DFG NE 2254/2-1, NE 2254/3-1, NE2254/4-1 [to IN]), the University Research Priority Program “Integrative Human Physiology” at the University of Zurich (to ROT), an NHMRC Senior Principal Research Fellowship (Grant No. 1105825 [to CPa]), an NHMRC L3 Investigator Grant (Grant No. 1196508 [to CPa]), and NHMRC Program Grant (Grant No. 1150083 [to CPa]). ASRB was supported by the NHMRC (Enabling Grant No. 386500), the Pratt Foundation, Ramsay Health Care, the Viertel Charitable Foundation and the Schizophrenia Research Institute. Chief investigators for ASRB were VC, US, RSc, AJ, BM, PTM, SVC, FH, and CPa. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant (Agreement No. 798181 [to GP]). ASRB was supported by the NHMRC (Enabling Grant, ID 386500), the Pratt Foundation, Ramsay Health Care, the Viertel Charitable Foundation and the Schizophrenia Research Institute. Chief investigators for ASRB were VC, US, RSc, AJ, BM, PTM, SVC, FH, and CPa. The Imaging Genetics in Psychosis study was funded by Project Grants from the NHMRC (Grant Nos. APP630471 and APP1081603 [to YQ]) and the Macquarie University’s Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders (Grant No. CE110001021 [to YQ]). This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities/Economy and Competitiveness/Instituto de Salud Carlos III (Grant Nos. PI11/01766 and CPII19/00009 [to JR]), co-financed by European Regional Development Fund funds from the European Commission (“A Way of Making Europe”). ASRB was supported by the NHMRC (Enabling Grant No. 386500), the Pratt Foundation, Ramsay Health Care, the Viertel Charitable Foundation, and the Schizophrenia Research Institute. Chief investigators for ASRB were VC, US, RSc, AJ, BM, PTM, SVC, FH, and CPa. SR was supported by an NHMRC Senior Fellowship (Grant No. GNT1154651). Collection of the COGSBD cohort was funded by the Jack Brockhoff Foundation, University of Melbourne, Barbara Dicker Brain Sciences Foundation, Rebecca L Cooper Foundation, and the Society of Mental Health Research (to SR). This work was supported by NIHR; MRC (to KR), NIH (Grant Nos. MH-094268, MH-105660, and MH-107730 [to ASS]). The Neuroimaging of the Children's Attention Project cohort was funded by NHMRC, Australia (Grant No. 1065895). Earlier funding for the cohort as also provided by NHMRC (Grant No. 1008522) and a grant from the Collier Foundation. The ACPU cohort was funded by NHMRC, Australia (Project Grant Nos. 384419 and 569533 [to TS]). This work was supported by research grants from the National Healthcare Group, Singapore (Grant Nos. SIG/05004, SIG/05028, and SIG /1103), and the Singapore Bioimaging Consortium (RP C009/2006 [to KS]), and the Ministry of Health, Czech Republic - conceptual development of research organization (“Institute for Clinical and Experimental Medicine - IKEM, IN 00023001” [to ASk]). This study was supported by the Italian Ministry of Health (Grant No. RC/17-18-19-20-21/A [to GS]) and Ministry of Health of the Czech Republic (Grant No. NU20-04-00393 [to FS]). The Drakenstein Child Health Study (DCHS) cohort is funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (Grant No. OPP 1017641) and the South African Medical Research Council. This DCHS contribution was made possible in part by a grant from Carnegie Corporation of New York. The statements made and views expressed are solely the responsibility of the author (DJS). STRADL study was supported and funded by the Wellcome Trust Strategic Award “Stratifying Resilience and Depression Longitudinally” (Grant No. 104036/Z/14/Z), and the Medical Research Council Mental Health Pathfinder Award “Leveraging routinely collected and linked research data to study the causes and consequences of common mental disorders” (MRC, Grant No. MC_PC_17209). Scottish Bipolar Family Study (SBFS) was supported by National Health Service Research Scotland, through the Scottish Mental Health Research Network (www.smhrn.org.uk), who provided assistance with subject recruitment and assessments. SBFS was conducted at the Brain Research Imaging Centre (http://www.bric.ed.ac.uk), which is supported by SINAPSE (Scottish Imaging Network, a Platform for Scientific Excellence, http://www.sinapse.ac.uk). Processing of the datasets used the resources provided by the Edinburgh Compute and Data Facility (http://www.ecdf.ed.ac.uk/) (ASt). TVR was supported by an NHMRC Early Career Fellowship (Grant No. GNT1088785). Collection of the COGSBD cohort was funded by the Jack Brockhoff Foundation, University of Melbourne, Barbara Dicker Brain Sciences Foundation, Rebecca L Cooper Foundation, and the Society of Mental Health Research (to TVR). EV was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (PI18/00805) integrated into the Plan Nacional de I+D+I and co-financed by the ISCIII-Subdirección General de Evaluación and the FEDER; the Instituto de Salud Carlos III; the CIBERSAM (Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Salud Mental); by the CERCA Programme/Generalitat de Catalunya and the Secretaria d’Universitats i Recerca del Departament d’Economia I Coneixement (Grant No. 2017SGR1355). This study was also supported by the Departament de Salut de la Generalitat de Catalunya, Pla Estratègic de Recerca i Innovació en Salut (PERIS) 2016-2020 (Grant No. SLT006/17/00345) and the European Union Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (EU.3.1.1. Understanding health, wellbeing and disease: Grant Nos. 754907 and EU.3.1.3 [to EB]; Treating and managing disease: Grant No. 945151 [to EV]). This study was supported by the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (Grant Nos. R21AT009173 and R61AT009864 [to TTY]); by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (CTSI), National Institutes of Health, through UCSF-CTSI (Grant No. UL1TR001872 [to TTY]); by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (Grant No. SRG-1-141-18 [to TTY]); by UCSF Research Evaluation and Allocation Committee (REAC) and J. Jacobson Fund (to TTY); by the NIMH (Grant No. R01MH085734 [to TTY]); and by the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation (formerly NARSAD) (to TTY). This work was supported by a personal Veni grant to MH from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO, Grant No. 91619115 [to MH]) and European Community’s Horizon 2020 Programme (H2020/2014 – 2020) (Grant Agreements Nos. 667302 [CoCA], 728018 [Eat2beNICE], and 847879 [PRIME] [to BF]). JBu has been supported by the EU-AIMS (European Autism Interventions) and AIMS-2-TRIALS programmes, which receive support from Innovative Medicines Initiative Joint Undertaking Grant Nos. 115300 and 777394, the resources of which are composed of financial contributions from the European Union’s FP7 and Horizon 2020 Programmes, and from the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations companies’ in-kind contributions, and AUTISM SPEAKS, Autistica and SFARI; and by the Horizon 2020–supported programme CANDY (Grant No. 847818 [to JBu]). This work is supported by Grant No. NIA T32AG058507 and NIH Grant No. U54EB020403 from the Big Data to Knowledge (BD2K) Program (to CRKC). ENIGMA MDD work is supported by NIH (Grant Nos. U54 EB020403 [to PT], R01 MH116147 [to PT], and R01 MH117601 [to NJ and LS]). LS was supported by an NHMRC Career Development Fellowship (Grant No. 1140764). This work was supported by the National Center for Research Resources at the NIH (Grant Nos. NIH 1 U24 RR021992 [Function Biomedical Informatics Research Network], NIH 1 U24 RR025736-01 [Biomedical Informatics Research Network Coordinating Center; http://www.birncommunity.org]). TGMvE is supported by ENIGMA’s NIH BD2K initiative (Grant No. U54 EB020403), ENIGMA Sex Differences (Grant No. R01MH116147), and ENIGMA-COINSTAC: Advanced Worldwide Transdiagnostic Analysis of Valence System Brain Circuits (Grant No. R01MH121246). This work was supported by the NIH (Grant No. R01MH121246 [to JT, Calhoun, and TGMvE]). This work was supported in part by NIH (Grant No. U54 EB020403 [to PT]).