Female-Specific Intergenerational Transmission Patterns of the Human Corticolimbic Circuitry.

Abstract

Parents have large genetic and environmental influences on the offspring, known as intergenerational effects. Specifically, depression has been shown to exhibit strong matrilineal transmission patterns. Although intergenerational transmission patterns in the human brain are virtually unknown, this would suggest that the corticolimbic circuitry relevant to a wide range of processes including mood regulation may also show matrilineal transmission patterns. Therefore, we examined the degree of association in corticolimbic gray matter volume (GMV) between parent and offspring in 35 healthy families. We found that positive correlations in maternal corticolimbic GMV with daughters were significantly greater than other parent-offspring dyads. Our findings provide new insight into the potential neuroanatomical basis of circuit-based female-specific intergenerational transmission patterns in depression.