Supplemental Material for Polygenic Scores Mediate the Jewish Phenotypic Advantage in Educational Attainment and Cognitive Ability Compared With Catholics and Lutherans

AbstractUsing newly available polygenic scores for educational attainment and cognitive ability, this paper investigates the possible presence and causes of a negative association between IQ and fertility in the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study sample, an issue that Retherford and Sewell first addressed 30 years ago. The effect of the polygenic score on the sample’s reproductive characteristics was indirect: a latent cognitive ability measure, comprised of both educational attainment and IQ, wholly mediated the relationship. Age at first birth mediated the negative effect of cognitive ability on sample fertility, which had a direct (positive) effect on the number of grandchildren. Significantly greater impacts of cognitive ability on the sample’s fertility characteristics were found among the female subsample. This indicates that, in this sample, having a genetic disposition toward higher cognitive ability does not directly reduce number of offspring; instead, higher cognitive ability is a risk factor for prolonging reproductive debut, which, especially for women, reduces the fertility window and, thus, the number of children and grandchildren that can be produced. By estimating the effect of the sample’s reproductive characteristics on the strength of polygenic selection, it was found that the genetic variance component of IQ should be declining at a rate between −.208 (95% CI [−.020, −.383]) and −.424 (95% CI [−.041, −.766]) points per decade, depending on whether GCTA-GREML or classical behavior genetic estimates of IQ heritability are used to correct for ‘missing’ heritability.

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Evidence for Recent Polygenic Selection on Educational Attainment Inferred from GWAS Hits

10.20944/preprints201611.0047.v1 ◽

2016 ◽

Author(s):

Davide Piffer

Keyword(s):

Educational Attainment ◽

Cognitive Ability ◽

Association Studies ◽

Meta Analysis ◽

Significant Snps ◽

P Value ◽

Genome Wide Association Studies ◽

Model Average ◽

Polygenic Scores ◽

Polygenic Selection

The genetic variants identified by three large genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of educational attainment were used to test a polygenic selection model. Average frequencies of alleles with positive effect (polygenic scores or PS) were compared across populations (N=26) using data from 1000 Genomes. The PS of 161 GWAS significant SNPs in a recent meta-analysis was highly correlated to population IQ (r=0.863) and to the polygenic score of four alleles independently associated with general cognitive ability. High  correlations with PISA scores for a subsample were observed.SNP p value predicted correlation to population IQ and factors from the two previous GWAS (r= -.25). Factor analysis produced similar estimates of selection pressure for educational attainment across the three datasets. Polygenic and factor scores computed using the top 20 significant SNPs showed very high correlation to population IQ (r=0.88; 0.9). Similar findings were obtained using 52 populations from another database (ALFRED). The results together constitute a replication of preliminary findings and provide strong evidence for recent diversifying polygenic selection on educational attainment and underlying cognitive ability.

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The genetic correlation between educational attainment, intracranial volume and IQ is due to recent polygenic selection on general cognitive ability

Open Behavioral Genetics ◽

10.26775/obg.2014.04.12 ◽

2014 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Davide Piffer ◽

Emil O. W. Kirkegaard

Keyword(s):

Educational Attainment ◽

Cognitive Ability ◽

Genetic Correlation ◽

Intracranial Volume ◽

General Cognitive Ability ◽

Polygenic Selection

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Educational Attainment and Personality Are Genetically Intertwined

Psychological Science ◽

10.1177/0956797617719083 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 28 (11) ◽

pp. 1631-1639 ◽

Cited By ~ 21

Author(s):

René Mõttus ◽

Anu Realo ◽

Uku Vainik ◽

Jüri Allik ◽

Tõnu Esko

Keyword(s):

Educational Attainment ◽

Personality Traits ◽

Personality Trait ◽

Factor Model ◽

Five Factor Model ◽

Molecular Genetic ◽

Maximum Amount ◽

Biological Processes ◽

Psychological Traits ◽

Polygenic Scores

Heritable variance in psychological traits may reflect genetic and biological processes that are not necessarily specific to these particular traits but pertain to a broader range of phenotypes. We tested the possibility that the personality domains of the five-factor model and their 30 facets, as rated by people themselves and their knowledgeable informants, reflect polygenic influences that have been previously associated with educational attainment. In a sample of more than 3,000 adult Estonians, education polygenic scores (EPSs), which are interpretable as estimates of molecular-genetic propensity for education, were correlated with various personality traits, particularly from the neuroticism and openness domains. The correlations of personality traits with phenotypic educational attainment closely mirrored their correlations with EPS. Moreover, EPS predicted an aggregate personality trait tailored to capture the maximum amount of variance in educational attainment almost as strongly as it predicted the attainment itself. We discuss possible interpretations and implications of these findings.

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Pathways of Intergenerational Transmission of Advantages during Adolescence: Social Background, Cognitive Ability, and Educational Attainment

Journal of Youth and Adolescence ◽

10.1007/s10964-017-0718-0 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 46 (10) ◽

pp. 2194-2214 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

Wiebke Schulz ◽

Reinhard Schunck ◽

Martin Diewald ◽

Wendy Johnson

Keyword(s):

Educational Attainment ◽

Cognitive Ability ◽

Intergenerational Transmission ◽

Social Background

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Measuring social origin, cognitive ability and educational attainment in the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England (LSYPE)

10.31235/osf.io/nqd5s ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Mollie Bourne ◽

Bastian Andreas Betthäuser ◽

Erzsebet Bukodi

Keyword(s):

Longitudinal Study ◽

Young People ◽

Educational Attainment ◽

Cognitive Ability ◽

Parental Education ◽

Descriptive Statistics ◽

Social Origin ◽

Education Class ◽

Key Variables ◽

Class Status

This data note presents and discussed descriptive statistics of the key variables on individuals’ social origin, cognitive ability and educational attainment that have been constructed based on the information contained in the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England (LSYPE). The main sets of variables presented are (1) measures of respondents’ cognitive ability in childhood, (2) parental education, class, status and income, and (3) respondents’ highest qualification and measures indicating whether respondents have crossed different educational qualification thresholds.

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Pleiotropic Meta-Analysis of Cognition, Education, and Schizophrenia Differentiates Roles of Early Neurodevelopmental and Adult Synaptic Pathways

10.1101/519967 ◽

2019 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Max Lam ◽

W. David Hill ◽

Joey W. Trampush ◽

Jin Yu ◽

Emma Knowles ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Educational Attainment ◽

Cognitive Ability ◽

Genetic Correlation ◽

Allelic Variation ◽

Meta Analysis ◽

Genetic Correlations ◽

Biological Mechanisms ◽

Genetic Level ◽

Higher Educational Attainment ◽

Synaptic Pruning

AbstractLiability to schizophrenia is inversely correlated with general cognitive ability at both the phenotypic and genetic level. Paradoxically, a modest but consistent positive genetic correlation has been reported between schizophrenia and educational attainment, despite the strong positive genetic correlation between cognitive ability and educational attainment. Here we leverage published GWAS in cognitive ability, education, and schizophrenia to parse biological mechanisms underlying these results. Association analysis based on subsets (ASSET), a pleiotropic meta-analytic technique, allowed jointly associated loci to be identified and characterized. Specifically, we identified subsets of variants associated in the expected (“Concordant”) direction across all three phenotypes (i.e., greater risk for schizophrenia, lower cognitive ability, and lower educational attainment); these were contrasted with variants demonstrating the counterintuitive (“Discordant”) relationship between education and schizophrenia (i.e., greater risk for schizophrenia and higher educational attainment). ASSET analysis revealed 235 independent loci associated with cognitive ability, education and/or schizophrenia at p<5×10−8. Pleiotropic analysis successfully identified more than 100 loci that were not significant in the input GWASs, and many of these have been validated by larger, more recent single-phenotype GWAS. Leveraging the joint genetic correlations of cognitive ability, education, and schizophrenia, we were able to dissociate two distinct biological mechanisms: early neurodevelopmental pathways that characterize concordant allelic variation, and adulthood synaptic pruning pathways that were linked to the paradoxical positive genetic association between education and schizophrenia. Further, genetic correlation analyses revealed that these mechanisms contribute not only to the etiopathogenesis of schizophrenia, but also to the broader biological dimensions that are implicated in both general health outcomes and psychiatric illness.

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Polygenic Scores for Smoking and Educational Attainment have Independent Influences on Academic Success and Adjustment in Adolescence and Educational Attainment in Adulthood

10.31234/osf.io/mueqg ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Brian M. Hicks ◽

D. Angus Clark ◽

Joseph D. Deak ◽

Jonathan Schaefer ◽

Mengzhen Liu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Academic Success ◽

Educational Attainment ◽

Academic Motivation ◽

Academic Adjustment ◽

Genetic Influences ◽

Behavioral Disinhibition ◽

Discipline Problems ◽

Academic Variables ◽

Polygenic Scores

Educational success is associated with greater quality of life and depends, in part, on heritable cognitive and non-cognitive traits. We used polygenic scores (PGS) for smoking—a measure of genetic influences on behavioral disinhibition—and educational attainment to examine different genetic influences on facets of academic adjustment in adolescence and educational attainment in adulthood. PGSs were calculated for participants of the Minnesota Twin Family Study (N = 3225) and included as predictors of grades, academic motivation, and discipline problems at ages 11, 14, and 17 years-old and educational attainment at age 29. Smoking and educational attainment PGSs had significant incremental associations with each academic variable. About half of the adjusted effects of the smoking and educational PGSs on educational attainment at age 29 were mediated by the academic variables in adolescence. Distinct genetic influences related to behavioral disinhibition and educational attainment contribute to academic adjustment in adolescence and educational attainment in adulthood.

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Cognitive and brain development is independently influenced by socioeconomic status and polygenic scores for educational attainment

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ◽

10.1073/pnas.2001228117 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 117 (22) ◽

pp. 12411-12418 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Nicholas Judd ◽

Bruno Sauce ◽

John Wiedenhoeft ◽

Jeshua Tromp ◽

Bader Chaarani ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Socioeconomic Status ◽

Educational Attainment ◽

Brain Development ◽

Surface Area ◽

Brain Structure ◽

Parental Education ◽

Cortical Surface ◽

Cortical Surface Area ◽

Regional Association ◽

Polygenic Scores

Genetic factors and socioeconomic status (SES) inequalities play a large role in educational attainment, and both have been associated with variations in brain structure and cognition. However, genetics and SES are correlated, and no prior study has assessed their neural associations independently. Here we used a polygenic score for educational attainment (EduYears-PGS), as well as SES, in a longitudinal study of 551 adolescents to tease apart genetic and environmental associations with brain development and cognition. Subjects received a structural MRI scan at ages 14 and 19. At both time points, they performed three working memory (WM) tasks. SES and EduYears-PGS were correlated (r= 0.27) and had both common and independent associations with brain structure and cognition. Specifically, lower SES was related to less total cortical surface area and lower WM. EduYears-PGS was also related to total cortical surface area, but in addition had a regional association with surface area in the right parietal lobe, a region related to nonverbal cognitive functions, including mathematics, spatial cognition, and WM. SES, but not EduYears-PGS, was related to a change in total cortical surface area from age 14 to 19. This study demonstrates a regional association of EduYears-PGS and the independent prediction of SES with cognitive function and brain development. It suggests that the SES inequalities, in particular parental education, are related to global aspects of cortical development, and exert a persistent influence on brain development during adolescence.

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