IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nathum/v5y2021i6d10.1038_s41562-020-01027-y.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Genetic underpinnings of risky behaviour relate to altered neuroanatomy

Author

Listed:
  • Gökhan Aydogan

    (University of Zurich)

  • Remi Daviet

    (University of Pennsylvania)

  • Richard Karlsson Linnér

    (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)

  • Todd A. Hare

    (University of Zurich)

  • Joseph W. Kable

    (University of Pennsylvania
    University of Pennsylvania)

  • Henry R. Kranzler

    (University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine
    Crescenz Veterans Affairs Medical Center)

  • Reagan R. Wetherill

    (University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine)

  • Christian C. Ruff

    (University of Zurich)

  • Philipp D. Koellinger

    (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
    University of Wisconsin-Madison)

  • Gideon Nave

    (University of Pennsylvania)

Abstract

Previous research points to the heritability of risk-taking behaviour. However, evidence on how genetic dispositions are translated into risky behaviour is scarce. Here, we report a genetically informed neuroimaging study of real-world risky behaviour across the domains of drinking, smoking, driving and sexual behaviour in a European sample from the UK Biobank (N = 12,675). We find negative associations between risky behaviour and grey-matter volume in distinct brain regions, including amygdala, ventral striatum, hypothalamus and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC). These effects are replicated in an independent sample recruited from the same population (N = 13,004). Polygenic risk scores for risky behaviour, derived from a genome-wide association study in an independent sample (N = 297,025), are inversely associated with grey-matter volume in dlPFC, putamen and hypothalamus. This relation mediates roughly 2.2% of the association between genes and behaviour. Our results highlight distinct heritable neuroanatomical features as manifestations of the genetic propensity for risk taking.

Suggested Citation

  • Gökhan Aydogan & Remi Daviet & Richard Karlsson Linnér & Todd A. Hare & Joseph W. Kable & Henry R. Kranzler & Reagan R. Wetherill & Christian C. Ruff & Philipp D. Koellinger & Gideon Nave, 2021. "Genetic underpinnings of risky behaviour relate to altered neuroanatomy," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 5(6), pages 787-794, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nathum:v:5:y:2021:i:6:d:10.1038_s41562-020-01027-y
    DOI: 10.1038/s41562-020-01027-y
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-020-01027-y
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41562-020-01027-y?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Shaw, Steven D. & Nave, Gideon, 2023. "Don't hate the player, hate the game: Realigning incentive structures to promote robust science and better scientific practices in marketing," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    2. Gangadharan, Lata & Islam, Asad & Ouch, Chandarany & Wang, Liang Choon, 2022. "The long-term effects of genocide on antisocial preferences," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nathum:v:5:y:2021:i:6:d:10.1038_s41562-020-01027-y. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.