TY - JOUR T1 - Genetic Underpinnings of Risky Behavior Relate to Altered Neuroanatomy JF - bioRxiv DO - 10.1101/862417 SP - 862417 AU - G. Aydogan AU - R. Daviet AU - R. Karlsson Linnér AU - T. A. Hare AU - J. W. Kable AU - H. R. Kranzler AU - R. R. Wetherill AU - C. C. Ruff AU - P. D. Koellinger AU - G. Nave Y1 - 2019/01/01 UR - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/12/02/862417.abstract N2 - Previous research points to the heritability of risk-taking behavior. However, evidence on how genetic dispositions are translated into risky behavior is scarce. Here, we report a genetically-informed neuroimaging study of real-world risky behavior in a large European sample (N=12,675). We found negative associations between risky behavior and grey matter volume (GMV) in distinct brain regions, including amygdala, ventral striatum, hypothalamus and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC). Polygenic risk scores for risky behaviors, derived from a genome-wide association study in an independent sample (N=297,025), were inversely associated with GMV in dlPFC, putamen, and hypothalamus. This relation mediated ∼2.2% of the association between genes and behavior. Our results highlight distinct heritable neuroanatomical features as manifestations of the genetic propensity for risk taking.One Sentence Summary Risky behavior and its genetic associations are linked to lower grey matter volume in distinct brain regions. ER -