Unveiling causal relationship between white matter tracts and psychiatric disorders
Abstract White matter tracts (WMTs), which mediate information transmission in the brain, are closely associated with the pathogenesis of psychiatric disorders, yet the causality of their associations remain unclear. Thus, we employed two-sample bidirectional Mendelian randomization to explore the c...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Nature Portfolio
2025-08-01
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| Series: | Communications Biology |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-025-08669-6 |
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| author | Yifan Yu Tianye Jia Xiao Lin Yanping Bao Suhua Chang Jie Sun Teng Gao Jie Shi Sizhi Ai Kai Yuan |
| author_facet | Yifan Yu Tianye Jia Xiao Lin Yanping Bao Suhua Chang Jie Sun Teng Gao Jie Shi Sizhi Ai Kai Yuan |
| author_sort | Yifan Yu |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract White matter tracts (WMTs), which mediate information transmission in the brain, are closely associated with the pathogenesis of psychiatric disorders, yet the causality of their associations remain unclear. Thus, we employed two-sample bidirectional Mendelian randomization to explore the causality between WMTs and 10 psychiatric disorders. We found that one standard deviation changes of WMTs metrics modified risks for 8 psychiatric disorders by 2·2% to 71·4%. For example, increased fornix/stria terminalis radial diffusivities elevated PTSD risk by 8.3%, while heightened mode anisotropy reduced Tourette syndrome risk by 71.4%. Reversely, alcohol use disorder increased the risk of WMTs abnormalities. Our study provides novel insights into the potential causality between WMTs and psychiatric disorders, indicating that alterations of WMTs may serve as biomarkers for psychiatric disorders. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-43647fe987aa44e6a6e69a52ac5b2fe9 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2399-3642 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-08-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Communications Biology |
| spelling | doaj-art-43647fe987aa44e6a6e69a52ac5b2fe92025-08-20T04:02:55ZengNature PortfolioCommunications Biology2399-36422025-08-018111110.1038/s42003-025-08669-6Unveiling causal relationship between white matter tracts and psychiatric disordersYifan Yu0Tianye Jia1Xiao Lin2Yanping Bao3Suhua Chang4Jie Sun5Teng Gao6Jie Shi7Sizhi Ai8Kai Yuan9Peking University Sixth Hospital, Peking University Institute of Mental Health, NHC Key Laboratory of Mental Health, National Clinical Research Center for Mental Disorders (Peking University Sixth Hospital), Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences Research Unit (No.2018RU006), Peking UniversityInstitute of Science and Technology for Brain-Inspired Intelligence, Fudan UniversityPeking University Sixth Hospital, Peking University Institute of Mental Health, NHC Key Laboratory of Mental Health, National Clinical Research Center for Mental Disorders (Peking University Sixth Hospital), Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences Research Unit (No.2018RU006), Peking UniversityNational Institute on Drug Dependence and Beijing Key Laboratory of Drug Dependence, Peking UniversityPeking University Sixth Hospital, Peking University Institute of Mental Health, NHC Key Laboratory of Mental Health, National Clinical Research Center for Mental Disorders (Peking University Sixth Hospital), Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences Research Unit (No.2018RU006), Peking UniversityCenter for Pain Medicine, Peking University Third HospitalPeking University Sixth Hospital, Peking University Institute of Mental Health, NHC Key Laboratory of Mental Health, National Clinical Research Center for Mental Disorders (Peking University Sixth Hospital), Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences Research Unit (No.2018RU006), Peking UniversityNational Institute on Drug Dependence and Beijing Key Laboratory of Drug Dependence, Peking UniversityCenter for Sleep and Circadian Medicine, The Affiliated Brain Hospital, Guangzhou Medical UniversityPeking University Sixth Hospital, Peking University Institute of Mental Health, NHC Key Laboratory of Mental Health, National Clinical Research Center for Mental Disorders (Peking University Sixth Hospital), Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences Research Unit (No.2018RU006), Peking UniversityAbstract White matter tracts (WMTs), which mediate information transmission in the brain, are closely associated with the pathogenesis of psychiatric disorders, yet the causality of their associations remain unclear. Thus, we employed two-sample bidirectional Mendelian randomization to explore the causality between WMTs and 10 psychiatric disorders. We found that one standard deviation changes of WMTs metrics modified risks for 8 psychiatric disorders by 2·2% to 71·4%. For example, increased fornix/stria terminalis radial diffusivities elevated PTSD risk by 8.3%, while heightened mode anisotropy reduced Tourette syndrome risk by 71.4%. Reversely, alcohol use disorder increased the risk of WMTs abnormalities. Our study provides novel insights into the potential causality between WMTs and psychiatric disorders, indicating that alterations of WMTs may serve as biomarkers for psychiatric disorders.https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-025-08669-6 |
| spellingShingle | Yifan Yu Tianye Jia Xiao Lin Yanping Bao Suhua Chang Jie Sun Teng Gao Jie Shi Sizhi Ai Kai Yuan Unveiling causal relationship between white matter tracts and psychiatric disorders Communications Biology |
| title | Unveiling causal relationship between white matter tracts and psychiatric disorders |
| title_full | Unveiling causal relationship between white matter tracts and psychiatric disorders |
| title_fullStr | Unveiling causal relationship between white matter tracts and psychiatric disorders |
| title_full_unstemmed | Unveiling causal relationship between white matter tracts and psychiatric disorders |
| title_short | Unveiling causal relationship between white matter tracts and psychiatric disorders |
| title_sort | unveiling causal relationship between white matter tracts and psychiatric disorders |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-025-08669-6 |
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