Genes Influence Intelligence Maintenance
January 20, 2012| |
A study about intelligence done 80 years ago had its sequel and revealed the role of genes in maintaining intelligence up to old age. Many scientists have been longing to know the relationship of cognitive changes with age but most of their studies involve elderly subjects.
University of Ediburgh psychologist Ian Deary found two unpublished data sets from intelligence studies conducted in 1932 and 1947, involving 11-year old Scottish children. Deary and colleagues tracked down the original participants who are now about 65 years old. The team collected the DNA samples of nearly 2,000 participants and conducted another intelligence test. Results of the intelligence tests showed that childhood intelligence correlated well with the intelligence in old age, however, the relationship is not perfect, meaning that some of the participants have better "intelligence genes" than the others.
To know more about the influence of genetics in the intelligence patterns of the participants, they analyzed their DNA samples and found more than half a million common genetic variants. Though the sample size was very limited to get the exact genetic signatures related to cognitive stability, it was enough to estimate the immense influence of genes in cognitive ageing. Using the old and the new data sets, the experts will continue searching which genes influence age-related changes in intelligence.
The original article is at http://www.nature.com/news/life-long-intelligence-in-the-genes-1.9842.
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