INTELLIGENCE GENES NOT AN ANCESTRAL TRAIT

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Bill Arnold

INTELLIGENCE GENES NOT AN ANCESTRAL TRAIT

Legg inn av Bill Arnold » 28 nov 2007 23:41:02

'Intelligence genes' proving hard to find: study

Wed Nov 28, 2:22 PM ET

Genes that can be pinned to intelligence are proving frustratingly hard
to find, the British weekly New Scientist reports in next Saturday's issue.

Researchers led by Robert Plomin of the Institute of Psychiatry in London
obtained intelligence scores for 7,000 seven-year-olds based on verbal
and non-verbal reasoning tests.

They also took DNA samples from the children in the hope of identifying
genetic differences between the high and low scorers.

The huge trawl identified 37 variants in six genes that appear to be play
some role in differences in intelligence.

But the individual effects of these genes was barely detectable. Together
they account for just one percent of the variation in intelligence between
individuals.

Previous research, based on twins and adopted children, suggests that about
half of the variation of intelligence is due to upbringing and social factors,
and the rest is inherited.

Even though the genetic link to intelligence is proving so elusive, that doesn't
mean that this 50-50 proportion should be reviewed, New Scientist says.

It simply implies that a complex trait like intelligence clearly results from the
cumulative effect of a wide combination of genes, rather than individual ones,
it says.

"Intelligence is a function of the way the brain is put together, and at least half
of our genome contributes in some way or another to brain function, which
means that in order to build a human brain, you need thousands of genes to
work together," New York University psychologist Gary Marcus told the publication.

Copyright © 2007 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved.



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