How and when can environmental influences change cerebral cortex? An experimental training study of twins with birth weight differences

Feature-specific environmental contributions to human cortical architecture revealed by twin brainprints | bioRxiv /* */ /* */ <!-- <!-- /*! * yepnope1.5.4 * (c) WTFPL, GPLv2 */ (function(a,b,c){function d(a){return"[object Function]"==o.call(a)}function e(a){return"string"==typeof a}function f(){}function g(a){return!a||"loaded"==a||"complete"==a||"uninitialized"==a}function h(){var a=p.shift();q=1,a?a.t?m(function(){("c"==a.t?B.injectCss:B.injectJs)(a.s,0,a.a,a.x,a.e,1)},0):(a(),h()):q=0}function i(a,c,d,e,f,i,j){function k(b){if(!o&&g(l.readyState)&&(u.r=o=1,!q&&h(),l.onload=l.onreadystatechange=null,b)){"img"!=a&&m(function(){t.removeChild(l)},50);for(var d in y[c])y[c].hasOwnProperty(d)&&y[c][d].onload()}}var j=j||B.errorTimeout,l=b.createElement(a),o=0,r=0,u={t:d,s:c,e:f,a:i,x:j};1===y[c]&&(r=1,y[c]=[]),"object"==a?l.data=c:(l.src=c,l.type=a),l.width=l.height="0",l.onerror=l.onload=l.onreadystatechange=function(){k.call(this,r)},p.splice(e,0,u),"img"!=a&&(r||2===y[c]?(t.insertBefore(l,s?null:n),m(k,j)):y[c].push(l))}function j(a,b,c,d,f){return q=0,b=b||"j",e(a)?i("c"==b?v:u,a,b,this.i++,c,d,f):(p.splice(this.i++,0,a),1==p.length&&h()),this}function k(){var a=B;return a.loader={load:j,i:0},a}var l=b.documentElement,m=a.setTimeout,n=b.getElementsByTagName("script")[0],o={}.toString,p=[],q=0,r="MozAppearance"in l.style,s=r&&!!b.createRange().compareNode,t=s?l:n.parentNode,l=a.opera&&"[object Opera]"==o.call(a.opera),l=!!b.attachEvent&&!l,u=r?"object":l?"script":"img",v=l?"script":u,w=Array.isArray||function(a){return"[object Array]"==o.call(a)},x=[],y={},z={timeout:function(a,b){return b.length&&(a.timeout=b[0]),a}},A,B;B=function(a){function b(a){var a=a.split("!"),b=x.length,c=a.pop(),d=a.length,c={url:c,origUrl:c,prefixes:a},e,f,g;for(f=0;f<d;f++)g=a[f].split("="),(e=z[g.shift()])&&(c=e(c,g));for(f=0;f<b;f++)c=x[f](c);return c}function g(a,e,f,g,h){var i=b(a),j=i.autoCallback;i.url.split(".").pop().split("?").shift(),i.bypass||(e&&(e=d(e)?e:e[a]||e[g]||e[a.split("/").pop().split("?")[0]]),i.instead?i.instead(a,e,f,g,h):(y[i.url]?i.noexec=!0:y[i.url]=1,f.load(i.url,i.forceCSS||!i.forceJS&&"css"==i.url.split(".").pop().split("?").shift()?"c":c,i.noexec,i.attrs,i.timeout),(d(e)||d(j))&&f.load(function(){k(),e&&e(i.origUrl,h,g),j&&j(i.origUrl,h,g),y[i.url]=2})))}function h(a,b){function c(a,c){if(a){if(e(a))c||(j=function(){var a=[].slice.call(arguments);k.apply(this,a),l()}),g(a,j,b,0,h);else if(Object(a)===a)for(n in m=function(){var b=0,c;for(c in a)a.hasOwnProperty(c)&&b++;return b}(),a)a.hasOwnProperty(n)&&(!c&&!--m&&(d(j)?j=function(){var a=[].slice.call(arguments);k.apply(this,a),l()}:j[n]=function(a){return function(){var b=[].slice.call(arguments);a&&a.apply(this,b),l()}}(k[n])),g(a[n],j,b,n,h))}else!c&&l()}var h=!!a.test,i=a.load||a.both,j=a.callback||f,k=j,l=a.complete||f,m,n;c(h?a.yep:a.nope,!!i),i&&c(i)}var i,j,l=this.yepnope.loader;if(e(a))g(a,0,l,0);else if(w(a))for(i=0;i (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];var j=d.createElement(s);var dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.src='//www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;j.type='text/javascript';j.async=true;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-M677548'); Skip to main content Home About Submit ALERTS / RSS Search for this keyword Advanced Search New Results Feature-specific environmental contributions to human cortical architecture revealed by twin brainprints View ORCID Profile Kristine Beate Walhovd , View ORCID Profile Anne Cecilie Sjolie Brathen , View ORCID Profile Knut Overbye , View ORCID Profile Jonas Kransberg , View ORCID Profile Oystein Sorensen , View ORCID Profile Pablo F. Garrido , View ORCID Profile Inge K. Amlien , View ORCID Profile Jose-Luis Alatrorre-Warren , View ORCID Profile Athanasia M. Mowinckel , View ORCID Profile Maksim Slivka , View ORCID Profile Nikolai O. Czajkowski , View ORCID Profile Yunpeng Wang , View ORCID Profile Paulina Due-Tonnessen , View ORCID Profile Jennifer Ruth Harris , Martin Lovden , View ORCID Profile Didac Vidal-Pineiro , Lars Nyberg , View ORCID Profile Anders Fjell , View ORCID Profile Markus H Sneve doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.03.06.641380 Kristine Beate Walhovd 1 University of Oslo; Find this author on Google Scholar Find this author on PubMed Search for this author on this site ORCID record for Kristine Beate Walhovd For correspondence: k.b.walhovd{at}psykologi.uio.no Anne Cecilie Sjolie Brathen 1 University of Oslo; Find this author on Google Scholar Find this author on PubMed Search for this author on this site ORCID record for Anne Cecilie Sjolie Brathen Knut Overbye 1 University of Oslo; Find this author on Google Scholar Find this author on PubMed Search for this author on this site ORCID record for Knut Overbye Jonas Kransberg 1 University of Oslo; Find this author on Google Scholar Find this author on PubMed Search for this author on this site ORCID record for Jonas Kransberg Oystein Sorensen 1 University of Oslo; Find this author on Google Scholar Find this author on PubMed Search for this author on this site ORCID record for Oystein Sorensen Pablo F. Garrido 1 University of Oslo; Find this author on Google Scholar Find this author on PubMed Search for this author on this site ORCID record for Pablo F. Garrido Inge K. Amlien 1 University of Oslo; Find this author on Google Scholar Find this author on PubMed Search for this author on this site ORCID record for Inge K. Amlien Jose-Luis Alatrorre-Warren 1 University of Oslo; Find this author on Google Scholar Find this author on PubMed Search for this author on this site ORCID record for Jose-Luis Alatrorre-Warren Athanasia M. Mowinckel 1 University of Oslo; Find this author on Google Scholar Find this author on PubMed Search for this author on this site ORCID record for Athanasia M. Mowinckel Maksim Slivka 1 University of Oslo; Find this author on Google Scholar Find this author on PubMed Search for this author on this site ORCID record for Maksim Slivka Nikolai O. Czajkowski 1 University of Oslo; Find this author on Google Scholar Find this author on PubMed Search for this author on this site ORCID record for Nikolai O. Czajkowski Yunpeng Wang 1 University of Oslo; Find this author on Google Scholar Find this author on PubMed Search for this author on this site ORCID record for Yunpeng Wang Paulina Due-Tonnessen 2 Oslo University Hospital; Find this author on Google Scholar Find this author on PubMed Search for this author on this site ORCID record for Paulina Due-Tonnessen Jennifer Ruth Harris 3 The Norwegian Institute of Public Health; Find this author on Google Scholar Find this author on PubMed Search for this author on this site ORCID record for Jennifer Ruth Harris Martin Lovden 4 University of Gothenburg; Find this author on Google Scholar Find this author on PubMed Search for this author on this site Didac Vidal-Pineiro 1 University of Oslo; Find this author on Google Scholar Find this author on PubMed Search for this author on this site ORCID record for Didac Vidal-Pineiro Lars Nyberg 5 Umea University Find this author on Google Scholar Find this author on PubMed Search for this author on this site Anders Fjell 1 University of Oslo; Find this author on Google Scholar Find this author on PubMed Search for this author on this site ORCID record for Anders Fjell Markus H Sneve 1 University of Oslo; Find this author on Google Scholar Find this author on PubMed Search for this author on this site ORCID record for Markus H Sneve Abstract Info/History Metrics Preview PDF Abstract How environmental variation shapes the human cerebral cortex remains incompletely understood. We compared cortical brainprints based in 210 twins (71 MZ and 34 DZ pairs, age 16-78 years) to distinguish prenatal, adult naturalistic and experimentally induced environmental variation from genetic contributions. Genetic effects were reflected in higher brainprint similarity within monozygotic (MZ) than dizygotic (DZ) pairs. Early environmental contributions were evident in lower brainprint similarity in MZ twin pairs with larger birthweight discordances, driven by area across the cortical ribbon. Later within-pair environmental differences in adult weight and lifestyle had minimal influence. Still, a 10-week virtual-reality navigation intervention revealed training-induced changes in the gray-white interface, with curvature and area changes supported by microstructural reconfigurations. In support of gene-environment interactions, relative brainprint similarity increased in MZ but diverged in DZ pairs following training. The results demonstrate that in adulthood, early life environmental difference persistently contributes to make the cortical architecture of genetically identical twins deviate. Environmental influence in adulthood in the form of training can still affect similarity of twin brainprints at the grey-white-matter boundary. These findings show that distinct environmental influences at prenatal and adult stage are differentially expressed across cortical features within a genetically informed framework. Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. Footnotes In this version of the manuscript, we have added some new data, including a new modality, diffusion imaging, to better understand the microstructural properties underlying the observed cortical differences and changes reported, making minor changes to the sample. Changes including new data required a full structural update of the processing pipelines, redoing preprocessing and analyses for all. This did not affect main conclusions. We have added analyses on other environmental exposure differences than birth weight (e.g. current BMI, lifestyle-related variables), and used a feature selection algorithm to choose environmental pair discordances of potential importance to brainprint differences. We have refocused the introduction, methods and discussion sections accordingly. Funder Information Declared European Research Council , 771375 The Research Council of Norway Copyright The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license . View the discussion thread. Back to top Previous Next Posted May 20, 2026. Download PDF Email Thank you for your interest in spreading the word about bioRxiv. NOTE: Your email address is requested solely to identify you as the sender of this article. Your Email * Your Name * Send To * Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas. You are going to email the following Feature-specific environmental contributions to human cortical architecture revealed by twin brainprints Message Subject (Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from bioRxiv Message Body (Your Name) thought you would like to see this page from the bioRxiv website. Your Personal Message CAPTCHA This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions. Share Feature-specific environmental contributions to human cortical architecture revealed by twin brainprints Kristine Beate Walhovd , Anne Cecilie Sjolie Brathen , Knut Overbye , Jonas Kransberg , Oystein Sorensen , Pablo F. Garrido , Inge K. Amlien , Jose-Luis Alatrorre-Warren , Athanasia M. Mowinckel , Maksim Slivka , Nikolai O. Czajkowski , Yunpeng Wang , Paulina Due-Tonnessen , Jennifer Ruth Harris , Martin Lovden , Didac Vidal-Pineiro , Lars Nyberg , Anders Fjell , Markus H Sneve bioRxiv 2025.03.06.641380; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.03.06.641380 Share This Article: Copy Citation Tools Feature-specific environmental contributions to human cortical architecture revealed by twin brainprints Kristine Beate Walhovd , Anne Cecilie Sjolie Brathen , Knut Overbye , Jonas Kransberg , Oystein Sorensen , Pablo F. Garrido , Inge K. Amlien , Jose-Luis Alatrorre-Warren , Athanasia M. Mowinckel , Maksim Slivka , Nikolai O. Czajkowski , Yunpeng Wang , Paulina Due-Tonnessen , Jennifer Ruth Harris , Martin Lovden , Didac Vidal-Pineiro , Lars Nyberg , Anders Fjell , Markus H Sneve bioRxiv 2025.03.06.641380; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.03.06.641380 Citation Manager Formats BibTeX Bookends EasyBib EndNote (tagged) EndNote 8 (xml) Medlars Mendeley Papers RefWorks Tagged Ref Manager RIS Zotero Tweet Widget Facebook Like Google Plus One Subject Area Neuroscience Subject Areas All Articles Animal Behavior and Cognition (7624) Biochemistry (17650) Bioengineering (13871) Bioinformatics (41882) Biophysics (21424) Cancer Biology (18566) Cell Biology (25461) Clinical Trials (138) Developmental Biology (13365) Ecology (19867) Epidemiology (2067) Evolutionary Biology (24290) Genetics (15590) Genomics (22476) Immunology (17713) Microbiology (40331) Molecular Biology (17148) Neuroscience (88477) Paleontology (666) Pathology (2828) Pharmacology and Toxicology (4816) Physiology (7635) Plant Biology (15114) Scientific Communication and Education (2044) Synthetic Biology (4286) Systems Biology (9815) Zoology (2268)