August 8, 2011

expert reaction to new research on genetic associations for human intelligence differences to be published in Molecular Psychiatry

Research led by scientists at the University of Edinburgh ran genome-wide association studies looking at the link with human intelligence and found it to be linked with a large number of genetic loci.

Dr Simon Underdown, Senior Lecturer in Biological Anthropology, Oxford Brookes University, said:

“Human intelligence is a stunning product of our evolution and this paper brilliantly demonstrates that the genetic basis for our intelligence is not the result of a simple mutation in a single gene. Rather the diverse range of genes that appear to influence our ability to think must have been actively selected for over hundreds of thousands of years.

“That we display such genetically influenced variation in intelligence across our species (or in other words why is that person cleverer than me?), further hints at how important cultural, as well as biological, evolution has been to the human story.”

‘Genome-wide association studies establish that human intelligence is highly heritable and polygenic’, published in Molecular Psychiatry on Tuesday 9 August.