Post by rmarks1 on Aug 24, 2017 22:36:01 GMT -5
Apparently, there are genes associated with intelligence.
Bob
Of the over 12 million SNPs analyzed, 336 correlated significantly with intelligence, implicating 22 different genes. One of the genes is involved in regulating the growth of neurons; another is associated with intellectual disability and cerebral malformation. Together, the SNPs accounted for about 5% of the differences across people in intelligence—a nearly two-fold increase over the last GWAS on intelligence.
Examining larger patterns of SNPs, the researchers discovered an additional 30 genes related to intelligence.
As a check on the replicability of their results, the scientists then tested for correlations between the 336 SNPs and level of education—a variable known to be strongly correlated with intelligence—in an independent sample of nearly 200,000 people who had previously undergone DNA testing. Ninety-nine percent of the time, the SNPs correlated in the same direction with education as they did with intelligence. This finding helps allay concerns that the SNPs associated with intelligence were false positives—in other words, due to chance. More substantively, the finding adds to the case that some of the same processes underlie intelligence and learning. The authors concluded that the results “provide starting points for understanding the molecular neurobiological mechanisms underlying intelligence, one of the most investigated traits in humans.”
As the cognitive neuroscientist Richard Haier discusses in his excellent new book The Neuroscience of Intelligence, other intelligence research is combining molecular genetic analyses and neuroimaging. In one study, using a sample of 1,583 adolescents, researchers discovered a SNP implicated in synaptic plasticity that was significantly related to both intelligence test scores and to cortical thickness, as measured by magnetic resonance imaging. In animal research, other researchers are using chemogenetic techniques to turn “on” and “off” neurons that may be important for intelligence.
Of course, intelligence is not solely the product of DNA—and no scientist studying intelligence thinks otherwise. The environment has a major impact on the development of intelligence, or any other psychological trait. All the same, knowledge gained from molecular genetic research may one day be used to identify children at risk for developing serious intellectual deficits, and for whom certain types of interventions early in life may reduce that risk. This research is also providing a scientific foundation for thinking about how brain functioning might be manipulated to enhance intelligence.
www.scientificamerican.com/article/intelligence-and-the-dna-revolution/
Examining larger patterns of SNPs, the researchers discovered an additional 30 genes related to intelligence.
As a check on the replicability of their results, the scientists then tested for correlations between the 336 SNPs and level of education—a variable known to be strongly correlated with intelligence—in an independent sample of nearly 200,000 people who had previously undergone DNA testing. Ninety-nine percent of the time, the SNPs correlated in the same direction with education as they did with intelligence. This finding helps allay concerns that the SNPs associated with intelligence were false positives—in other words, due to chance. More substantively, the finding adds to the case that some of the same processes underlie intelligence and learning. The authors concluded that the results “provide starting points for understanding the molecular neurobiological mechanisms underlying intelligence, one of the most investigated traits in humans.”
As the cognitive neuroscientist Richard Haier discusses in his excellent new book The Neuroscience of Intelligence, other intelligence research is combining molecular genetic analyses and neuroimaging. In one study, using a sample of 1,583 adolescents, researchers discovered a SNP implicated in synaptic plasticity that was significantly related to both intelligence test scores and to cortical thickness, as measured by magnetic resonance imaging. In animal research, other researchers are using chemogenetic techniques to turn “on” and “off” neurons that may be important for intelligence.
Of course, intelligence is not solely the product of DNA—and no scientist studying intelligence thinks otherwise. The environment has a major impact on the development of intelligence, or any other psychological trait. All the same, knowledge gained from molecular genetic research may one day be used to identify children at risk for developing serious intellectual deficits, and for whom certain types of interventions early in life may reduce that risk. This research is also providing a scientific foundation for thinking about how brain functioning might be manipulated to enhance intelligence.
www.scientificamerican.com/article/intelligence-and-the-dna-revolution/
Bob
