A new study implicates 160 genes in brain shrinkage seen on MRIs of 45,000 healthy adults. The shrinkage is in the cortex, the dimply outer layer of the brain that gives rise to thinking, awareness and action, and largely consists of gray matter.
The study, published in the journal Nature Communications, examined 34 regions of the cortex in a discovery group of 22,894 individuals, then confirmed the findings in a replication group of 22,635 individuals.
“It is important to understand the biology of multiple regions of the cortex because each is affected differently in the various types of neurodegeneration including Alzheimer’s disease,” said Sudha Seshadri, MD, senior study author from UT Health San Antonio.