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Title: Genetic underpinnings of risky behaviour relate to altered neuroanatomy
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.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1942917
PAR ID:
10213023
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;
Editor(s):
Schiffer, Marike
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Nature Human Behaviour
ISSN:
2397-3374
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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