Mutations associated with neuropsychiatric conditions delineate functional brain connectivity dimensions contributing to autism and schizophrenia

Clara A. Moreau (1, 2) , Sebastian G. W. Urchs (2, 3) , Kumar Kuldeep (1) , Pierre Orban (4, 1) , Catherine Schramm (1, 5) , Guillaume Dumas (1, 6) , Aurélie Labbe (7) , Guillaume Huguet (1) , Elise Douard (1) , Pierre-Olivier Quirion (2, 3) , Amy Lin (8) , Leila Kushan (8) , Stephanie Grot (4, 1) , David Luck (1) , Adrianna Mendrek (9) , Stephane Potvin (1) , Emmanuel Stip (1, 10) , Thomas Bourgeron (6) , Alan C. Evans (3) , Carrie E. Bearden (8) , Pierre Bellec (2) , Sebastien Jacquemont (1)

1 UdeM - Université de Montréal
2 CRIUGM - Centre de Recherche de l'Institut Universitaire de Gériatrie de Montréal
3 McGill University = Université McGill [Montréal, Canada]
4 CRIUSMM - Centre de Recherche de l’Institut Universitaire en Santé Mentale de Montréal
5 Jewish General Hospital
6 GHFC (UMR_3571 / U-Pasteur_1) - Génétique humaine et fonctions cognitives - Human Genetics and Cognitive Functions
7 HEC Montréal - HEC Montréal
8 Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior [Los Angeles, Ca]
9 Bishop’s University [Sherbrooke, Canada]
10 UAEU - United Arab Emirates University

16p11.2 and 22q11.2 Copy Number Variants (CNVs) confer high risk for Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), schizophrenia (SZ), and Attention-Deficit-Hyperactivity-Disorder (ADHD), but their impact on functional connectivity (FC) remains unclear. Here we report an analysis of resting-state FC using magnetic resonance imaging data from 101 CNV carriers, 755 individuals with idiopathic ASD, SZ, or ADHD and 1,072 controls. We characterize CNV FC-signatures and use them to identify dimensions contributing to complex idiopathic conditions. CNVs have large mirror effects on FC at the global and regional level. Thalamus, somatomotor, and posterior insula regions play a critical role in dysconnectivity shared across deletions, duplications, idiopathic ASD, SZ but not ADHD. Individuals with higher similarity to deletion FC-signatures exhibit worse cognitive and behavioral symptoms. Deletion similarities identified at the connectivity level could be related to the redundant associations observed genome-wide between gene expression spatial patterns and FC-signatures. Results may explain why many CNVs affect a similar range of neuropsychiatric symptoms.

Domains: Neuroscience

Clara A. Moreau, Sebastian G. W. Urchs, Kumar Kuldeep, Pierre Orban, Catherine Schramm, et al.. Mutations associated with neuropsychiatric conditions delineate functional brain connectivity dimensions contributing to autism and schizophrenia. Nature Communications, 2020, 11 (1), pp.5272. ⟨10.1038/s41467-020-18997-2⟩. ⟨pasteur-03325396⟩