regional imaging genetic associations

regional imaging genetic associations performs voxelwise enrichment analysis to detect collective genetic effects on brain imaging phenotypes by aggregating weak voxel-level signals and leveraging anatomical annotations.

Key Features:

• Voxelwise Enrichment Analysis: Performs enrichment analysis at the individual voxel level within ROIs to aggregate weak signals instead of relying on ROI summary statistics.
• Integration with Brain Anatomical Annotation: Incorporates brain anatomical annotation information to enable biologically meaningful interpretation of regional genetic effects.
• Statistical Power Enhancement: Reduces the multiple-comparison burden to increase statistical power relative to traditional ROI-wise and voxelwise approaches.

Scientific Applications:

• ADNI FDG-positron emission tomography regional genetic analysis: Applied to Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) FDG-positron emission tomography data across 116 ROIs and 565,373 SNPs, identifying 2,946 novel imaging genetic associations, confirming 33 overlapping associations, and obtaining transcriptome support for two variants.

Methodology:

Uses voxelwise enrichment analysis that embraces weak voxel-level signals, integrates brain anatomical annotation information, and reduces the need for extensive multiple-comparison corrections.