To date, there have been relatively few genetic studies examining beta EEG, and only one finding that has been replicated. This study reports association between intronic SNPs located within DSE on 6q22 and fronto-central fast beta EEG in a sample of related individuals of EA. The most significant SNP is an eQTL for DSE, a gene encoding a protein important in cranial neural crest development, previously implicated in several complex traits (e.g., Ehlers Danlos syndrome, bipolar disorder, brain morphology) and expressed in hippocampus and temporal cortex, brain regions of importance to beta EEG. Further, GeneMANIA has indicated that DSE interacts with a network of genes integral to membrane organization. In the present study, gene-based tests of association suggest that several variants within this network (i.e., variants within DSE, ZEB2, MCTP1, RND3, and CTBP2) were associated with beta EEG, and ZEB2 and CTBP2 were also associated with DSM-V AUD. Converging data from GWAS, gene expression, and gene-networks presented in this study provide support for the role of genetic variants within DSE and related genes in neural hyperexcitability, and has highlighted two
