The ENIGMA Consortium: Large-scale collaborative analyses of neuroimaging and genetic data
Thompson PM., Stein JL., Medland SE., Hibar DP., Vasquez AA., Renteria ME., Toro R., Jahanshad N., Schumann G., Franke B., Wright MJ., Martin NG., Agartz I., Alda M., Alhusaini S., Almasy L., Almeida J., Alpert K., Andreasen NC., Andreassen OA., Apostolova LG., Appel K., Armstrong NJ., Aribisala B., Bastin ME., Bauer M., Bearden CE., Bergmann Ø., Binder EB., Blangero J., Bockholt HJ., Bøen E., Bois C., Boomsma DI., Booth T., Bowman IJ., Bralten J., Brouwer RM., Brunner HG., Brohawn DG., Buckner RL., Buitelaar J., Bulayeva K., Bustillo JR., Calhoun VD., Cannon DM., Cantor RM., Carless MA., Caseras X., Cavalleri GL., Chakravarty MM., Chang KD., Ching CRK., Christoforou A., Cichon S., Clark VP., Conrod P., Coppola G., Crespo-Facorro B., Curran JE., Czisch M., Deary IJ., de Geus EJC., den Braber A., Delvecchio G., Depondt C., de Haan L., de Zubicaray GI., Dima D., Dimitrova R., Djurovic S.
The Enhancing NeuroImaging Genetics through Meta-Analysis (ENIGMA) Consortium is a collaborative network of researchers working together on a range of large-scale studies that integrate data from 70 institutions worldwide. Organized into Working Groups that tackle questions in neuroscience, genetics, and medicine, ENIGMA studies have analyzed neuroimaging data from over 12,826 subjects. In addition, data from 12,171 individuals were provided by the CHARGE consortium for replication of findings, in a total of 24,997 subjects. By meta-analyzing results from many sites, ENIGMA has detected factors that affect the brain that no individual site could detect on its own, and that require larger numbers of subjects than any individual neuroimaging study has currently collected. ENIGMA's first project was a genome-wide association study identifying common variants in the genome associated with hippocampal volume or intracranial volume. Continuing work is exploring genetic associations with subcortical volumes (ENIGMA2) and white matter microstructure (ENIGMA-DTI). Working groups also focus on understanding how schizophrenia, bipolar illness, major depression and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) affect the brain. We review the current progress of the ENIGMA Consortium, along with challenges and unexpected discoveries made on the way. © 2014 The Author(s).