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Explaining the increasing heritability of cognitive ability across development: a meta-analysis of longitudinal twin and adoption studies.

ABSTRACT: Genes account for increasing proportions of variation in cognitive ability across development, but the mechanisms underlying these increases remain unclear. We conducted a meta-analysis of longitudinal behavioral genetic studies spanning infancy to adolescence. We identified relevant data from 16 articles with 11 unique samples containing a total of 11,500 twin and sibling pairs who were all reared together and measured at least twice between the ages of 6 months and 18 years. Longitudinal behavioral genetic models were used to estimate the extent to which early genetic influences on cognition were amplified over time and the extent to which innovative genetic influences arose with time. Results indicated that in early childhood, innovative genetic influences predominate but that innovation quickly diminishes, and amplified influences account for increasing heritability following age 8 years.

SUBMITTER: Briley DA

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3954471 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Explaining the increasing heritability of cognitive ability across development: a meta-analysis of longitudinal twin and adoption studies.

Briley Daniel A DA Tucker-Drob Elliot M EM

Psychological science 20130701 9

Genes account for increasing proportions of variation in cognitive ability across development, but the mechanisms underlying these increases remain unclear. We conducted a meta-analysis of longitudinal behavioral genetic studies spanning infancy to adolescence. We identified relevant data from 16 articles with 11 unique samples containing a total of 11,500 twin and sibling pairs who were all reared together and measured at least twice between the ages of 6 months and 18 years. Longitudinal behav ...[more]

PMID: 23818655

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Project description:BackgroundThe etiology of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) has been recently debated due to emerging findings on the importance of shared environmental influences. However, two recent twin studies do not support this and instead re-affirm strong genetic effects on the liability to ASD, a finding consistent with previous reports. This study conducts a systematic review and meta-analysis of all twin studies of ASD published to date and explores the etiology along the continuum of a quantitative measure of ASD.MethodsA PubMed Central, Science Direct, Google Scholar, Web of Knowledge structured search conducted online, to identify all twin studies on ASD published to date. Thirteen primary twin studies were identified, seven were included in the meta-analysis by meeting Systematic Recruitment criterion; correction for selection and ascertainment strategies, and applied prevalences were assessed for these studies. In addition, a quantile DF extremes analysis was carried out on Childhood Autism Spectrum Test scores measured in a population sample of 6,413 twin pairs including affected twins.ResultsThe meta-analysis correlations for monozygotic twins (MZ) were almost perfect at .98 (95% Confidence Interval, .96-.99). The dizygotic (DZ) correlation, however, was .53 (95% CI .44-.60) when ASD prevalence rate was set at 5% (in line with the Broad Phenotype of ASD) and increased to .67 (95% CI .61-.72) when applying a prevalence rate of 1%. The meta-analytic heritability estimates were substantial: 64-91%. Shared environmental effects became significant as the prevalence rate decreased from 5-1%: 07-35%. The DF analyses show that for the most part, there is no departure from linearity in heritability.ConclusionsWe demonstrate that: (a) ASD is due to strong genetic effects; (b) shared environmental effects become significant as a function of lower prevalence rate; (c) previously reported significant shared environmental influences are likely a statistical artefact of overinclusion of concordant DZ twins.

Project description:Despite compelling evidence that brain structure is heritable, the evidence for the heritability of task-evoked brain function is less robust. Findings from previous studies are inconsistent possibly reflecting small samples and methodological variations. In a large national twin sample, we systematically evaluated heritability of task-evoked brain activity derived from functional magnetic resonance imaging. We used established standardised tasks to engage brain regions involved in cognitive and emotional functions. Heritability was evaluated across a conscious and nonconscious Facial Expressions of Emotion Task (FEET), selective attention Oddball Task, N-back task of working memory maintenance, and a Go-NoGo cognitive control task in a sample of Australian adult twins (N ranged from 136 to 226 participants depending on the task and pairs). Two methods for quantifying associations of heritability and brain activity were utilised; a multivariate independent component analysis (ICA) approach and a univariate brain region-of-interest (ROI) approach. Using ICA, we observed that a significant proportion of task-evoked brain activity was heritable, with estimates ranging from 23% to 26% for activity elicited by nonconscious facial emotion stimuli, 27% to 34% for N-back working memory maintenance and sustained attention, and 32% to 33% for selective attention in the Oddball task. Using the ROI approach, we found that activity of regions specifically implicated in emotion processing and selective attention showed significant heritability for three ROIs, including estimates of 33%-34% for the left and right amygdala in the nonconscious processing of sad faces and 29% in the medial superior prefrontal cortex for the Oddball task. Although both approaches show similar levels of heritability for the Nonconscious Faces and Oddball tasks, ICA results displayed a more extensive network of heritable brain function, including additional regions beyond the ROI analysis. Furthermore, multivariate twin modelling of both ICA networks and ROI activation suggested a mix of common genetic and unique environmental factors that contribute to the associations between networks/regions. Together, the results indicate a complex relationship between genetic factors and environmental interactions that ultimately give rise to neural activation underlying cognition and emotion.

Dataset Information

Explaining the increasing heritability of cognitive ability across development: a meta-analysis of longitudinal twin and adoption studies.

Publications

Explaining the increasing heritability of cognitive ability across development: a meta-analysis of longitudinal twin and adoption studies.

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