The cerebral cortical patterns accounted for 47-66% of the variation among individuals in their genetic ancestry, depending on the ancestral lineage.
![Gyrification of Brain Correlates with One`s Ancestral Background Gyrification of Brain Correlates with One`s Ancestral Background](https://images.medindia.net/health-images/1200_1000/brain13.jpg)
The research team found that they could predict with a relatively high degree of accuracy an individual’s genetic ancestry based on the geometry of their cerebral cortex. Dale said, "We found no relationship between brain shape and functional or cognitive abilities, but rather a trove of information about how minute differences in brain geometry could be correlated with genetic lineage."
Study’s first author Chun Chieh Fan said, "The geometry of the brain’s cortical surface contains rich information about ancestry. Even in the modern contemporary US population, with its melting pot of different cultures, it was still possible to correlate brain cortex structure to ancestral background."
The study found that there were various systematic differences, particularly in the folding and gyrification patterns of the cortex. These cortical patterns accounted for 47-66% of the variation among individuals in their genetic ancestry, depending on the ancestral lineage.
The study is published in Current Biology.
Source-IANS