Cited by 663Functional Brain Connectivity StudiesSingle-cell and spatial transcriptomicsBioinformatics and Genomic Networks

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 49 of the 49 references it cites were found in a registry or an index; none of the 21 sources its claims cite is checked for support yet.

Canonical genetic signatures of the adult human brain

Open access

Abstract

The structure and function of the human brain are highly stereotyped, implying a conserved molecular program responsible for its development, cellular structure and function. We applied a correlation-based metric called differential stability to assess reproducibility of gene expression patterning across 132 structures in six individual brains, revealing mesoscale genetic organization. The genes with the highest differential stability are highly biologically relevant, with enrichment for brain-related annotations, disease associations, drug targets and literature citations. Using genes with high differential stability, we identified 32 anatomically diverse and reproducible gene expression signatures, which represent distinct cell types, intracellular components and/or associations with neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disorders. Genes in neuron-associated compared to non-neuronal networks showed higher preservation between human and mouse; however, many diversely patterned genes displayed marked shifts in regulation between species. Finally, highly consistent transcriptional architecture in neocortex is correlated with resting state functional connectivity, suggesting a link between conserved gene expression and functionally relevant circuitry.

Overview

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Written from the paper’s full text.

TL;DR

The paper applies a correlation-based “differential stability” (DS) metric to Allen Human Brain Atlas expression data across 132 structures in six adult human brains to identify conserved transcriptional organization. It reports 32 reproducible co-expression modules, links high-DS genes to brain function, disease, and drug targets, compares module conservation with mouse, and finds that conserved cortical gene expression correlates with resting-state functional connectivity.

Key findings

  • DS ranged from ΔBR=0.970 to −0.057 across 17,348 uniquely annotated human transcripts; the highest-DS gene was FOXG1 (ΔBR=0.970), and PCDH8 had ΔBR=0.931. The top 10% DS genes (n=1735) were enriched for neuronal functional categories, drug interactions (first decile had 4651 small-molecule/chemical interactions, more than 30 times the third decile), and disease gene sets including mental disorders (p<8.06e-31), schizophrenia (p<9.14e-30), autism (p<3.45e-17), epilepsy (p<1.00e-11), bipolar disorder (p<4.94e-14), and major depression (p<4.60e-10).
  • A consensus WGCNA network built from the 50% highest DS genes (ΔBR>0.5284, g=8674) identified 32 modules; 90.1% (15,627) of genes correlated with these patterns at kME>0.4. Modules ranged from largely neuronal (M1–M15) to essentially non-neuronal (M16–M32), with examples including M6 in cortex, M10 in striatum, M11 in thalamus, M12 in substantia nigra, M14 in hypothalamus, M16 in dentate gyrus, and M17 in cerebellum; M25 was associated with immune response (q<3.71e-35) and M30 with myelination/glial ensheathment (q<1.48e-06).
  • In human-mouse comparison using 53 matched mouse structures and 2651 genes, neuron-associated modules such as M1, M6, and M7 were better preserved than many non-neuronal modules (M25–M32), though individual genes within even preserved modules sometimes shifted patterning between species.
  • In cortex, the top 5th percentile of cortical DS genes (n=867) had ΔCTX>0.357 versus ΔBR>0.854 for whole brain, and only 31% of the top 5% cortical DS genes were in the top 5% of brain-wide DS. Higher cortical DS predicted stronger correlation between functional connectivity and gene expression (ρ=0.46, p<2.2e-16); 136 genes whose polymorphisms affect resting-state functional connectivity had higher expression-connectivity correlation (μ=0.12, p<2.2e-192) and higher cortical DS (ΔCTX=0.40, p<1.2e-325).

Methods

  • Data came from the Allen Human Brain Atlas: six neurotypical adult whole brains (3 Caucasian males, 2 African American males, 1 Caucasian woman), with 345–911 samples per brain spanning one or both hemispheres, 232 discrete brain structures sampled at least once, and 132 structures used for the main analysis; expression was profiled with whole-genome Agilent microarrays.
  • DS was defined as the average Pearson correlation across 15 pairs of the six brains over a set of anatomic regions; WGCNA was used to construct a consensus co-expression network from the top 50% DS genes, with modules assigned by kME>0.4 and functionally annotated using ToppGene and related databases.
  • Cross-species comparison used Allen Mouse Brain Atlas in situ hybridization expression energy for 2651 genes across 53 matched mouse structures; functional connectivity analysis used Human Connectome Project resting-state fMRI data, including a dense connectome from 468 subjects and parcellated connectomes from 447 subjects across 52 left-hemisphere parcels, then correlated gene co-expression matrices with the connectome matrix.

Limitations

  • The paper states possible ascertainment bias in regional transcriptional patterns because they may be preferentially annotated in available studies, and notes that approximately 9% of the most conserved gene set has no functional annotation to date.
  • The paper states that the mouse comparison used 2651 genes initially chosen because they were potentially biologically interesting, making that set biased; specific proportions of cross-species agreement may not represent the whole transcriptome, though gene assignments as conserved or not should reflect actual conservation in these datasets.
  • The paper states that functional connectivity from fMRI is an indirect measure and should not be considered a surrogate for direct anatomical connectivity; it also notes that anatomical sampling was not cell type-specific, and that direct comparisons with previous studies are challenging due to differences in analysis strategies and experimental design.

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Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1038/nn.4171

Cites

49 of 49 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

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Verification

Claims the paper makes

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Show all 47 claims

  • It may state two separate claims as one. 35
  • The quote only partly states this claim. 3
  • Probably not a substantial claim. 22
52 of 52
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The structure and function of the human brain are highly stereotyped.

    “The structure and function of the human brain are highly stereotyped, implying a conserved molecular program responsible for its development, cellular structure, and function.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The general anatomical positioning of and connectivity between brain regions is highly stereotyped between individuals.

    “Despite a range of brain sizes across individuals and variation in sulcal patterning in the neocortex, the general anatomical positioning of and connectivity between regions is highly stereotyped between individuals, suggesting that a significant proportion of the transcriptional coding for this common architecture is conserved across the human population.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    A significant proportion of the transcriptional coding for the common brain architecture is conserved across the human population.

    “Despite a range of brain sizes across individuals and variation in sulcal patterning in the neocortex, the general anatomical positioning of and connectivity between regions is highly stereotyped between individuals, suggesting that a significant proportion of the transcriptional coding for this common architecture is conserved across the human population.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The mouse ISH expression energy values are comparable to human microarray intensities for between-species correlations and network statistics.

    “These values were treated the same way as microarray intensities for between-species correlations and network statistics.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Genes in mouse can be assigned to the same modules as their human orthologs.

    “Genes in mouse were assigned to the same modules as their human orthologs.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The AHBA tissue samples can be mapped to the HCP 52 region parcellation such that gene expression can be compared to functional connectivity.

    “The next step is to map the Allen Human Brain Atlas (AHBA) tissue samples to the HCP 52 region parcellation so that comparison can be made.”
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Claims other papers make about this one

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Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

Each contradiction between two passages listed here was confirmed by an independent check.

  • Mouse regional expression is described as averaged over different voxel sets

    Major

    One methods section says mouse expression energy was averaged across all voxels in each matched structure. Another says it was averaged over only the 250 most highly expressed voxels, except in regions with fewer than 250 voxels.

  • Autworks disease-set count differs between sections

    Minor

    The results give 2,289 Autworks gene sets, while the methods describe the same database as listing 2,288 disease states. The text does not explain the one-set difference.

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Citations

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Research works printed but not linked: 1

  1. Richiardi, J. et al. Correlated gene expression supports synchronous activity in brain networks. Science 348, 1241–1244 (2015). · DOI · Paper page

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Metadata

Authors
Hawrylycz, M., Miller, J. A., Menon, V., Feng, D., Dolbeare, T., Guillozet-Bongaarts, A. L., Jegga, A. G., Aronow, B. J., Lee, C.-K., Bernard, A., Glasser, M. F., Dierker, D. L., Menche, J., Szafer, A., Collman, F., Grange, P., Berman, K. A., Mihalas, S., Yao, Z., Stewart, L., Barabási, A.-L., Schulkin, J., Phillips, J., Ng, L., Dang, C., Haynor, D. R., Jones, A., Van Essen, D. C., Koch, C., & Lein, E.
Affiliations
  • Allen Institute for Brain Science (US)
  • Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center (US)
  • Washington University in St. Louis (US)
  • Northeastern University (US)
  • Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (CN)
  • University of Cincinnati (US)
  • University of Washington (US)
  • Georgetown University (US)
Corresponding author
  • Hawrylycz, Michael
  • Lein, Ed
Venue
Nature Neuroscience
Published
2015-11-16
Volume
18
Issue
12
Pages
1832-1844
ISSN
  • 1097-6256 (ISSN-L)
  • 1546-1726
OpenAlex
W2260830658
Cited by
663
References
49
Citations by year
2026: 53 · 2025: 84 · 2024: 83 · 2023: 70 · 2022: 72 · 2021: 74 · 2020: 66 · 2019: 38 · 2018: 46 · 2017: 44 · 2016: 29 · 2015: 1
FWCI
24.04
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Nature Neuroscience (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
  • Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard (DASH) (Harvard University) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
Funders
  • National Institutes of Health (5r33da027644-04, 5u54mh091657-05)
  • National Institute of Mental Health (1U54 MH091657, U54-MH091657)
  • National Institute on Drug Abuse (R33 DA027644, 4R33DA027644)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Functional Brain Connectivity Studies
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Single-cell and spatial transcriptomics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Bioinformatics and Genomic Networks
Keywords
differential stability, brain cell types, resting-state functional connectivity, neocortex, neurodevelopmental disorders, neurodegenerative diseases, therapeutic target, gene expression signatures
MeSH terms
Adult, Animals, Brain, Humans, Nerve Net, Mice, Gene Regulatory Networks, Transcriptome

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