MRI has enhanced our capacity to understand variations in brain structure and function conferred by the genome. We identified 60 studies that report associations between DNA methylation (DNAm) and human brain structure/function. Forty-three studies measured candidate loci DNAm; seventeen measured epigenome-wide DNAm. MRI features included region-of-interest and whole-brain structural, diffusion and functional imaging features. The studies report DNAm-MRI associations for: neurodevelopment and neurodevelopmental disorders; major depression and suicidality; alcohol use disorder; schizophrenia and psychosis; ageing, stroke, ataxia and neurodegeneration; post-traumatic stress disorder; and socio-emotional processing. Consistency between MRI features and differential DNAm is modest. Sources of bias: variable inclusion of comparator groups; different surrogate tissues used; variation in DNAm measurement methods; lack of control for genotype and cell-type composition; and variations in image processing. Knowledge of MRI features associated with differential DNAm may improve understanding of the role of DNAm in brain health and disease, but caution is required because conventions for linking DNAm and MRI data are not established, and clinical and methodological heterogeneity in existing literature is substantial.

中文翻译：

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整个生命过程中的DNA甲基化和大脑结构与功能：系统综述。

MRI增强了我们理解基因组所赋予的大脑结构和功能变化的能力。我们确定了60项报告DNA甲基化（DNAm）与人脑结构/功能之间的关联的研究。四十三项研究测量了候选基因座DNAm。十七个测量的表观基因组范围的DNAm。MRI特征包括感兴趣区域以及全脑结构，扩散和功能成像特征。这些研究报告了DNAm-MRI与以下疾病的关系：神经发育和神经发育障碍；重度抑郁和自杀 饮酒障碍；精神分裂症和精神病；老化，中风，共济失调和神经变性；创伤后应激障碍；和社会情感处理。MRI特征与差异DNAm之间的一致性适中。偏见的来源：比较者群体的可变纳入；使用了不同的替代组织；DNAm测量方法的差异；缺乏对基因型和细胞类型组成的控制；以及图像处理中的变化。了解与差异DNAm相关的MRI特征可能会增进对DNAm在脑健康和疾病中的作用的了解，但是需要谨慎，因为尚未建立用于链接DNAm和MRI数据的惯例，并且现有文献中的临床和方法异质性很强。