Schizotypy-Related Magnetization of Cortex in Healthy Adolescence Is Colocated With Expression of Schizophrenia-Related Genes

Genetic risk is thought to drive clinical variation on a spectrum of schizophrenia-like traits, but the underlying changes in brain structure that mechanistically link genomic variation to schizotypal experience and behavior are unclear. We assessed schizotypy using a self-reported questionnaire and measured magnetization transfer as a putative microstructural magnetic resonance imaging marker of intracortical myelination in 68 brain regions in 248 healthy young people (14–25 years of age). We used normative adult brain gene expression data and partial least squares analysis to find the weighted gene expression pattern that was most colocated with the cortical map of schizotypy-related magnetization. Magnetization was significantly correlated with schizotypy in the bilateral posterior cingulate cortex and precuneus (and for disorganized schizotypy, also in medial prefrontal cortex; all false discovery rate–corrected ps