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    Common DNA markers can account for more than half of the genetic influence on cognitive abilities

    Plomin, R. and Haworth, C. and Meaburn, Emma L. and Price, T.S and Davis, O.S.P. (2013) Common DNA markers can account for more than half of the genetic influence on cognitive abilities. Psychological Science 24 (4), pp. 562-568. ISSN 0956-7976.

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    Abstract

    For nearly a century, twin and adoption studies have yielded substantial estimates of heritability for cognitive abilities, although it has proved difficult for genomewide-association studies to identify the genetic variants that account for this heritability (i.e., the missing-heritability problem). However, a new approach, genomewide complex-trait analysis (GCTA), forgoes the identification of individual variants to estimate the total heritability captured by common DNA markers on genotyping arrays. In the same sample of 3,154 pairs of 12-year-old twins, we directly compared twin-study heritability estimates for cognitive abilities (language, verbal, nonverbal, and general) with GCTA estimates captured by 1.7 million DNA markers. We found that DNA markers tagged by the array accounted for .66 of the estimated heritability, reaffirming that cognitive abilities are heritable. Larger sample sizes alone will be sufficient to identify many of the genetic variants that influence cognitive abilities.

    Metadata

    Item Type: Article
    Additional Information: Co-authored by Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium
    Keyword(s) / Subject(s): cognitive ability, behavioral genetics, cognitive development, genetics
    School: Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Science > School of Psychological Sciences
    Research Centres and Institutes: Educational Neuroscience, Centre for, Brain and Cognitive Development, Centre for (CBCD)
    Depositing User: Emma Meaburn
    Date Deposited: 15 May 2013 09:47
    Last Modified: 02 Aug 2023 17:03
    URI: https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/6723

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