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Graduate Student Award Winner Sketchpad Series 

A Topological Principle of Parent-Child Brain Morphological Similarity

Poster Session C - Sunday, March 8, 2026, 5:00 – 7:00 pm PDT, Fairview/Kitsilano Ballroom
Also presenting in Data Blitz Session 2 - Saturday, March 7, 2026, 10:30 am – 12:00 pm PST, Salon D.

Qingyi Li¹ (), Ya-Yun Chen¹, Tae-Ho Lee^1,2; ¹Department of Psychology, Virginia Tech, ²School of Neuroscience, Virginia Tech

The brain is the biological bridge between generations, yet the parent–child structural basis of this linkage remains unclear. We mapped dyadic morphological similarity in 60 parent–child dyads (N=120, children aged 8-17 years) using a multi-metric structural fingerprint (cortical thickness, surface area, gray-matter volume, curvature). To minimize cohort/template bias, we applied leave-one-family-out standardization with covariate residualization (TBV). Dyads showed higher structural similarity significantly compared to non-dyadic random pairs (r=0.115 vs. −0.025; Cohen’s d=1.18). Critically, low level sensory systems such as limbic, subcortical and visual networks showed highest similarity (a heritable core) and higher-order association networks such as default-mode, fronto-parietal and salience networks exhibited the lowest (forming a plastic scaffold reserved for individualized adaptation), indicating that structural similarity has two distinctive organizational principles: one reflecting genetically constrained, and the other reflecting experience-dependent adaptation. We then linked similarity to psychopathology by deriving a p-factor (higher = worse symptoms) from nine questionnaire indices using multiple-imputation PCA. Greater subcortical similarity associated with higher p (r=0.26, p<.05; risk pathway), whereas greater salience similarity associated with lower p (r=−0.277, p<.05; protective pathway). Alignment in affective subcortical hardware appears to index familial susceptibility, while alignment within salience may support detection/switching processes that buffer broad symptom liability. The results outline a parent–child, network-specific account of brain structure: a core that is conserved and a scaffold that remains open to experience, clarifying a key trade-off in intergenerational organization and pointing to concrete targets for gene–environment research on resilience. Keywords: Parent–Child Dyads; Morphological Similarity; Brain Morphometry; Large-Scale Brain Networks; Psychopathology.

Topic Area: EMOTION & SOCIAL: Emotion-cognition interactions