FY16

Genetic and environmental influences on height from infancy to early adulthood: An individual-based pooled analysis of 45 twin cohorts

Jelenkovic A, Craig JM, Sumathipala A, Harden KP, Cozen W, Mack TM, Hopper JL, Duncan GE, Buchwald D, Sung J, Harris JR, Busjahn A, Goldberg JH, Kaprio J, Silventoinen K, et al. Height variation is known to be determined by both genetic and environmental factors, but a systematic description of how their influences differ by sex, age and […]

Effects of Anxiety on Caloric Intake and Satiety-Related Brain Activation in Women and Men

Mestre ZL, Melhorn SJ, Askren MK, Tyagi V, Gatenby C, Young L, Mehta S, Webb MF, Grabowski TJ, Schur EA. Objective To test the relationship of anxiety to caloric intake and food cue perception in women and men. Methods Fifty-five twins (26 complete, 3 incomplete pairs; 51% women) underwent 2 functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) […]

Cross Sectional Association between Spatially Measured Walking Bouts and Neighborhood Walkability

Hwang LD, Hurvitz PM, Duncan GE Walking is the most popular choice of aerobic physical activity to improve health among U.S. adults. Physical characteristics of the home neighborhood can facilitate or hinder walking. The purpose of this study was to quantify neighborhood walking, using objective methods and to examine the association between counts of walking […]

Alterations in Connectivity on Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging with Provocation of Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms: A MAPP Research Network Feasibility Study of Urological Chronic Pelvic Pain Syndromes

Kleinhans NM, Yang CC, Strachan ED, Buchwald DS, Maravilla KR Purpose Urological chronic pelvic pain syndromes have refractory bladder or pelvic pain as the dominant symptom. This has been attributed to changes in the central nervous system caused by a chronic barrage of noxious stimuli. We developed what is to our knowledge a novel challenge […]

Brain regulation of appetite in twins

Melhorn SJ, Mehta S, Kratz M, Tyagi V, Webb MF, Noonan CJ, Buchwald DS, Goldberg J, Maravilla KR, Grabowski TJ, Schur EA Background Neural responses to highly energetic food cues are robust and are suppressed by eating. It is not known if neural responsiveness to food cues is an inherited trait and possibly even one […]

Socioeconomic modifiers of genetic and environmental influences on body mass index in adult twins

Dinescu D, Horn EE, Duncan G, Turkheimer E Objective Individual measures of socioeconomic status (SES) suppress genetic variance in body mass index (BMI). Our objective was to examine the influence of both individual-level (i.e., educational attainment, household income) and macrolevel (i.e., neighborhood socioeconomic advantage) SES indicators on genetic contributions to BMI. Method The study used […]

Sleep Duration and Area-Level Deprivation in Twins

Watson NF, Horn E, Duncan GE, Buchwald D, Vitiello MV, Turkheimer E Study Objectives We used quantitative genetic models to assess whether area-level deprivation as indicated by the Singh Index predicts shorter sleep duration and modifies its underlying genetic and environmental contributions. Methods Participants were 4,218 adult twin pairs (2,377 monozygotic and 1,841 dizygotic) from […]

Familial Contributions to Self-Reported Sleep and Pain in Female Twins

Godfrey KM, Strachan E, Mostoufi S, Poeschla B, Succop A, Afari N The relationship between sleep quality and pain has been studied in populations with chronic pain and in nonclinical populations using experimental paradigms. Little is known about the familial contributions to this relationship. This study examines self-reported sleep quality and pain in a nonclinical […]

Zygosity Differences in Height and Body Mass Index of Twins From Infancy to Old Age: A Study of the CODATwins Project

Jelenkovic A, Craig JM, Sumathipala A, Harden KP, Cozen W, Mack TM, Hopper JL, Duncan GE, Buchwald D, Sung J, Harris JR, Busjahn A, Goldberg JH, Kaprio J, Silventoinen K, et al. A trend toward greater body size in dizygotic (DZ) than in monozygotic (MZ) twins has been suggested by some but not all studies, and this difference […]

Mitochondrial DNA Copy Number in Sleep Duration Discordant Monozygotic Twins

Wrede JE, Mengel-From J, Buchwald D, Vitiello MV, Bamshad M, Noonan C, Christiansen L, Christensen K, Watson NF Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) copy number is an important component of mitochondrial function and varies with age, disease, and environmental factors. We aimed to determine whether mtDNA copy number varies with habitual differences in sleep duration within pairs […]

In adult twins, visceral fat accumulation depends more on exceeding sex-specific adiposity thresholds than on genetics

Bosch TA, Chow L, Dengel DR, Melhorn SJ, Webb M, Yancey D, Callahan H, De Leon MRB, Tyagi V, Schur EA We recently reported sex-specific percent body fat (%BF) thresholds (males = 23%, females = 38%) above which, visceral adipose tissue (VAT) significantly increases. Using monozygotic (MZ) and dizygotic (DZ) twins, we examined the influence of genetics on regional […]

The CODATwins Project

The Cohort Description of Collaborative Project of Development of Anthropometrical Measures in Twins to Study Macro-Environmental Variation in Genetic and Environmental Effects on Anthropometric Traits Silventoinen K, Craig JM, Sumathipala A, Harden KP, Cozen W, Mack TM, Hopper JL, Duncan GE, Buchwald D, Sung J, Harris JR, Busjahn A, Goldberg JH, Kaprio J, et al. […]

Associations Between Fast-Food Consumption and Body Mass Index: A Cross-Sectional Study in Adult Twins

Cohen-Cline H, Lau R, Moudon AV, Turkheimer E, Duncan GE Obesity is a substantial health problem in the United States, and is associated with many chronic diseases. Previous studies have linked poor dietary habits to obesity. This cross-sectional study aimed to identify the association between body mass index (BMI) and fast-food consumption among 669 same-sex […]

Behavioral and Environmental Modification of the Genetic Influence on Body Mass Index: A Twin Study

Horn EE, Turkheimer E, Strachan E, Duncan GE Body mass index (BMI) has a strong genetic basis, with a heritability around 0.75, but is also influenced by numerous behavioral and environmental factors. Aspects of the built environment (e.g., environmental walkability) are hypothesized to influence obesity by directly affecting BMI, by facilitating or inhibiting behaviors such […]