The ability to combine advanced neuroimaging techniques and genetic information will fundamentally change our understanding of the brain and how it functions in disease. By applying knowledge of genetic information, Imaging Genomics can be used to determine how individual differences in genes contribute to differences in brain structure and function.
Wave 2 Complete
Following the completion of wave 2, the QTAB project is pausing data collection. We hope to recommence data collection in the coming years. Keep an eye out on this website or our Facebook page for updates and published research papers.
Research Directions
Our research is at the interface of cognitive neuroscience and genetics.
The overall aim is to provide new knowledge and understanding of the neurobiological causes of major mental illnesses through the integration of structural and functional imaging, measures of cognition, health and well-being, and behavioural and molecular genetic approaches.
News and Events
2021 Publications
- van Eijk L, Zhu D, Couvy-Duchesne B, et al. Are Sex Differences in Human Brain Structure Associated With Sex Differences in Behavior? Psychological Science. July 2021. doi:10.1177/0956797621996664
- O’Callaghan VO, Couvy-Duchesne B, Strike LT, McMahon KL, Byrne EM, Wright MJ.
A Meta-Analysis of the Relationship between Subjective Sleep and Depressive Symptoms in Adolescence, Sleep Medicine, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sleep.2021.01.011
2020 Publications
- van Eijk L, Hansell NK, Strike LT, et al. Region-specific sex differences in the hippocampus. Neuroimage. 2020;215:116781. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2020.116781
- Grasby KL, Jahanshad N, Painter JN, et al. The genetic architecture of the human cerebral cortex. Science. 2020;367(6484). doi:10.1126/science.aay6690
- Mitchell BL, Cuéllar-Partida G, Grasby KL, et al. Educational attainment polygenic scores are associated with cortical total surface area and regions important for language and memory. Neuroimage. 2020;212:116691. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2020.116691
- Writing Committee for the ENIGMA-CNV Working Group , van der Meer D, Sønderby IE, et al. Association of Copy Number Variation of the 15q11.2 BP1-BP2 Region With Cortical and Subcortical Morphology and Cognition [published online ahead of print, 2019 Oct 30]. JAMA Psychiatry. 2019;77(4):1-11. doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2019.3779
Congratulations!
Congratulations to Liza van Eijk for her recent PhD submission, Victoria O’Callaghan for winning the research excellence award at the 16th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Australasian Chronobiology Society, and Ethan Campi for the recent submission of his honours thesis.
2019 Publications
Chen, X., Formisano, E., Blokland, G. A. M., Strike, L. T., McMahon, K. L., de Zubicaray, G. I., . . . Nichols, T. E. (2019). Accelerated estimation and permutation inference for ACE modeling. Hum Brain Mapp, 40(12), 3488-3507. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.24611
Couvy-Duchesne, B., Strike, L. T., McMahon, K. L., de Zubicaray, G. I., Thompson, P. M., Martin, N. G., . . . Wright, M. J. (2019). A Fast Method for Estimating Statistical Power of Multivariate GWAS in Real Case Scenarios: Examples from the Field of Imaging Genetics. Behav Genet, 49(1), 112-121. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10519-018-9936-9
Hwang, L. D., Lin, C., Gharahkhani, P., Cuellar-Partida, G., Ong, J. S., An, J., . . . Reed, D. R. (2019). New insight into human sweet taste: a genome-wide association study of the perception and intake of sweet substances. Am J Clin Nutr, 109(6), 1724-1737. https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/nqz043
Hwang, L. D., Strike, L. T., Couvy-Duchesne, B., de Zubicaray, G. I., McMahon, K., Breslin, P. A. S., . . . Wright, M. J. (2019). Associations between brain structure and perceived intensity of sweet and bitter tastes. Behav Brain Res, 363, 103-108. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbr.2019.01.046
Strike, L. T., Hansell, N. K., Thompson, P. M., de Zubicaray, G. I., McMahon, K. L., Zietsch, B. P., & Wright, M. J. (2019). Absolute and relative estimates of genetic and environmental variance in brain structure volumes. Brain Struct Funct. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00429-019-01931-8
2019 Meeting of the Organisation for Human Brain Mapping
Some preliminary results from the QTAB project were presented at the 2019 OHBM meeting held in Rome, Italy.
Welcome 2018 Summer Research Scholars!
Welcome to Ethan (left), and Jack and Oksana (right), pictured with QBI Director Professor Pankaj Sah. Ethan is the recipient of the 2018 Aleks and Elise Brumby Summer Research Scholarship, and Jack and Oksana are both participants in the the Ashintosh-QBI scholarship program. See the full story here.
