Brain SCALE 

Brain SCALE stands for Brain Structure and Cognition: an Adolescence Longitudinal twin study into Etiology. In this study we investigate the development of brain, body and cognition in a sample of twin pairs and their older brothers and sisters. The twin aspect allows for the study of the etiology of development, i.e. are individual differences between children best explained by genetic or environmental factors? 

Currently, we are starting the third measurement in this longitudinal study. Children / adolescents have visited us twice so far, at age 9 and at age 12 of the participating twin pairs. 

Changes in cortical thickness between the age of 9 and 12 years

Investigators 

This study is a cooperation between the psychiatry department of the University Medical Center Utrecht (UMCU) and the Netherlands Twin Register / Free University (VU), Amsterdam. 

Prof. Dr. HE Hulshoff Pol (UMCU)
Prof. Dr. DI Boomsma (VU)
Dr. RM Brouwer (UMCU)
Drs. MMG Koenis (UMCU)
Drs. SC Swagerman (VU)

Most recent publications 

Brouwer RM, Mandl RCW, Schnack HG, van Soelen ILC, van Baal GC, Peper JS, Kahn RS, Boomsma DI, Hulshoff Pol HE, White matter development in early puberty: a longitudinal volumetric and diffusion tensor imaging twin study, PLoSONE, 7(4):e32316. Epub 2012 Apr 13. 

van Soelen ILC, Brouwer RM, Peper JS, van Leeuwen M, Koenis MMG, van Beijsterveldt CEM, Swagerman SC, Kahn RS, Hulshoff Pol HE, Boomsma DI, Brain SCALE: Brain Structure and Cognition: an Adolescence Longitudinal twin study into Etiology, Twin Res Hum Genet, in press. 

van Soelen ILC, Brouwer RM, van Baal GC, Schnack HG, Peper JS, Collins DL, Evans AC, Kahn RS, Boomsma DI, Pol HE (2012), Genetic influences on thinning of the cerebral cortex during development, NeuroImage, Feb 15;59(4):3871-80. Epub 2011 Dec 1.