Gene Expression Pathways Of Social Cognition Related Brain Activation

Objective Previous studies have shown that social cognition is associated with abnormal behavior in patients with a variety of neuropsychiatric diseases.The purpose of this study was to explore the gene expression that affects the function of brain regions related to social cognition,and to analyze the molecular pathway that affects the function of brain regions related to social cognition with the method of gene enrichment analysis,so as to explore the genetic mechanism of social cognitive function.Materials and methods In this study,100 cases of social cognitive task related fMRI from Human Connectome Project(HCP),HCP-S1200 dataset,collected by Siemens Skyra 3.0T magnetic resonance imaging device,was used to detect brain areas related to social cognition.First,100 cases of HCP task related fMRI data were randomly divided into two groups,50 cases in each group respectively,as the experimental group and the verification group.SPM8 software based on MatLab platform was used to conduct single-sample t-test for the two groups of samples at the group level,and FWE(p <0.05)was used for multiple comparison and correction of the statistical results to obtain the t-value map at the group level.The spatial correlation analysis of the intensity of brain activation related to social cognition and the level of gene expression was conducted using Allen Human Brain Atlas(AHBA).AHBA and t-value map related to social cognition were used for spatial registration.The correlation between t-value and gene expression level was analyzed to obtain the genes with significant correlation.Weighted gene co-expression network analysis(WGCNA)was adopted to cluster the above genes and then to generate gene modules.Then we performed the same process in the validation group.Gene enrichment analysis was carried out on the gene modules in both the experimental group and the verification group,and gene enrichment pathways were functionally annotated to obtain molecular pathways regulating the functions of brain regions related to social cognition.Results The brain regions significantly activated in social cognition tasks were mainly concentrated in bilateral inferior temporal gyri,superior temporal gyri,superior frontal gyri,inferior occipital gyri,superior occipital gyri,superior parietal gyri and amygdala,right pars opercularis,pars triangularis,middle frontal gyri and middle temporal gyri.The results of spatial correlation analysis across brain regions showed that there was a significant correlation between the expression level of 1388 genes and the level of social cognition-related brain activation.1388 genes were clustered into 6 modules using WGCNA,which were analyzed for gene enrichment subsequently.It was found that genes were mainly enriched in molecular pathways of signaling,cellular process,developmental process and postsynapse.Conclusions In this study,it was found that the function of the brain regions related to social cognition was regulated by gene expression,which was related to the occurrence and transduction of signals in the brain,intercellular communication,life development,and postsynaptic protein formation,etc.The findings lay a theoretical foundation for the study of social cognitive dysfunction related to diseases.