Dramatic Increase in Heritability of Cognitive Development From Early to Middle Childhood: An 8-Year Longitudinal Study of 8,700 Pairs of Twins

The generalist genes hypothesis implies that general cognitive ability (g) is an essential target for understanding how genetic polymorphisms influence the development of the human brain. Using 8,791 twin pairs from the Twins Early Development Study, we examine genetic stability and change in the et...

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Published inPsychological science Vol. 20; no. 10; pp. 1301 - 1308
Main Authors Davis, Oliver S. P., Haworth, Claire M. A., Plomin, Robert
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Los Angeles, CA Wiley Periodicals 01.10.2009
SAGE Publications
SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
Subjects
Accounts
Age Factors
Behavioral genetics
Brain
Child
Child Development
Child psychology
Child, Preschool
Childhood
Cognition
Cognitive ability
Cognitive development
Cognitive models
Developmental psychology
Environmental aspects
Environmental psychology
Etiology
Female
Fraternal twins
Genes
Genetics
Heritability
Human genetics
Humans
Identical twins
Longitudinal Studies
Male
Principal Component Analysis
Quantitative genetics
Social Environment
Statistical variance
Task Performance and Analysis
Twins
Twins - genetics
United Kingdom
Verbal Behavior
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Summary:The generalist genes hypothesis implies that general cognitive ability (g) is an essential target for understanding how genetic polymorphisms influence the development of the human brain. Using 8,791 twin pairs from the Twins Early Development Study, we examine genetic stability and change in the etiology of g assessed by diverse measures during the critical transition from early to middle childhood. The heritability of a latent g factor in early childhood is 23%, whereas shared environment accounts for 74% of the variance. In contrast, in middle childhood, heritability of a latent g factor is 62%, and shared environment accounts for 33%. Despite increasing importance of genetic influences and declining influence of shared environment, similar genetic and shared environmental factors affect g from early to middle childhood, as indicated by a cross-age genetic correfation of .57 and a shared environmental correlation of .65. These findings set constraints on how genetic and environmental variation affects the developing brain.
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ISSN:0956-7976
1467-9280
DOI:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2009.02433.x