Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Nov-Dec:95:101689.
doi: 10.1016/j.intell.2022.101689.

The genetics of specific cognitive abilities

Francesca Procopio  1 , Quan Zhou  2 , Ziye Wang  1   2 , Agnieska Gidziela  1   2 , Kaili Rimfeld  1   3 , Margherita Malanchini  1   2 , Robert Plomin  1
Affiliations

The genetics of specific cognitive abilities

Francesca Procopio et al. Intelligence. 2022 Nov-Dec.

Abstract

Most research on individual differences in performance on tests of cognitive ability focuses on general cognitive ability (g), the highest level in the three-level Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC) hierarchical model of intelligence. About 50% of the variance of g is due to inherited DNA differences (heritability) which increases across development. Much less is known about the genetics of the middle level of the CHC model, which includes 16 broad factors such as fluid reasoning, processing speed, and quantitative knowledge. We provide a meta-analytic review of 747,567 monozygotic-dizygotic twin comparisons from 77 publications for these middle-level factors, which we refer to as specific cognitive abilities (SCA), even though these factors are not independent of g. Twin comparisons were available for 11 of the 16 CHC domains. The average heritability across all SCA is 56%, similar to that of g. However, there is substantial differential heritability across SCA and SCA do not show the developmental increase in heritability seen for g. We also investigated SCA independent of g (SCA.g). A surprising finding is that SCA.g remain substantially heritable (53% on average), even though 25% of the variance of SCA that covaries with g has been removed. Our review highlights the need for more research on SCA and especially on SCA.g. Despite limitations of SCA research, our review frames expectations for genomic research that will use polygenic scores to predict SCA and SCA.g. Genome-wide association studies of SCA.g are needed to create polygenic scores that can predict SCA profiles of cognitive abilities and disabilities independent of g.

Keywords: Heritability; Intelligence; Specific cognitive ability; Twin study; meta-analysis.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that they have no competing or potential conflicts of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Flow diagram indicating the number of articles included and excluded at each stage of the selection process.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Conceptual and functional groupings of CHC model. Adapted from Schneider & McGrew (2012). The parentheses indicate the number of twin pairs (without duplicates).
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Weighted average twin correlations and ACE estimates for 11 CHC broad abilities for which twin correlations were available. The first row (SCA) shows weighted average results across the 11 categories. The error bars indicate 95% confidence intervals. Note: Specific Cognitive Ability (SCA); Quantitative Knowledge (Gq); Processing Speed (Gs); Reading and Writing (Grw); General (domain-specific) Knowledge (Gkn); Comprehension-Knowledge (Gc); Visual Processing (Gv); Long-term Storage and Retrieval (Glr); Reaction and Decision Speed (Gt); Short-term Memory (Gsm); Fluid Reasoning (Gf); Auditory Processing (Ga).
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Developmental differences: Heritability estimates for SCA and the 11 CHC broad abilities for five age groups. The error bars indicate 95% confidence intervals. Note: Specific Cognitive Ability (SCA); Auditory Processing (Ga); Comprehension-Knowledge (Gc); Fluid Reasoning (Gf); General (domain specific) Knowledge (Gkn); Long-term Storage and Retrieval (Glr); Quantitative Knowledge (Gq); Reading and Writing (Grw); Processing Speed (Gs); Short-term Memory (Gsm); Reaction and Decision Speed (Gt); Visual Processing (Gv).
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Average heritability estimates for SCA and SCA.g from studies investigating SCA.g separately by method used to estimate heritability. The error bars indicate 95% confidence intervals.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Allegrini A.G., Selzam S., Rimfeld K., von Stumm S., Pingault J.B., Plomin R. Genomic prediction of cognitive traits in childhood and adolescence. Molecular Psychiatry. 2019;24(6):819–827. doi: 10.1038/s41380-019-0394-4. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Briley D.A., Tucker-Drob E.M. Explaining the increasing heritability of cognitive ability across development: A meta-analysis of longitudinal twin and adoption studies. Psychological Science. 2013;24(9):1704–1713. doi: 10.1177/0956797613478618. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Cheesman R., Selzam S., Ronald A., Dale P.S., McAdams T.A., Eley T.C., Plomin R. Childhood behaviour problems show the greatest gap between DNA-based and twin heritability. Translational Psychiatry. 2017;7(12):1284. doi: 10.1038/s41398-017-0046-x. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Chipuer H.M., Rovine M.J., Plomin R. LISREL modeling: Genetic and environmental influences on IQ revisited. Intelligence. 1990;14(1):11–29. doi: 10.1016/0160-2896(90)90011-H. - DOI
    1. Cohen J., Cohen P., West S.G., Aiken L.S. 3rd ed. Lawrence Erlbaum; Mahwah, NJ: 2003. Applied multiple regression/correlation analysis for the behavioral sciences.

LinkOut - more resources