Grant: CIHR Fellowship

Intrinsic connectivity networks have been identified in the brain, and have distinct as well as cooperative roles in facilitating cognition. Recently, specific brain networks have been identified as selectively vulnerable in neurodegenerative diseases. However, critical questions remain unanswered: First, how does genetic variation affect normal brain network function? Secondly, how might this contribute to or prevent neurodegenerative disease? Given the link between specific brain networks and specific neurodegenerative diseases, gene variants that are associated with functional network connectivity are more likely to impact risk for neurodegenerative disease. In this project we will map the genetic influence on brain network function and cognition in healthy individuals using data from The Human Connectome Project, a multicentre effort to collect brain imaging, behavioral and genotype data for a large number of healthy subjects. Then we will test which of these gene variants impact risk of specific neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal dementia. This proposal will be the crucial next step towards characterizing gene sets influencing connectivity in specific brain networks rather than across all brain networks, and how this is associated with vulnerability for a specific neurodegenerative disease. Neurodegenerative diseases and their effects are devastating. This study will be the first to establish links between genetics and functional brain network connectivity, revealing mechanisms of vulnerability to disease. Identifying gene-brain network associations, if detected early on, may serve as biomarkers for neurodegenerative disease.