scholarly journals Divergent selection on height and cognitive ability: evidence from Fst and polygenic scores

OpenPsych ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Davide Piffer
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Ability ◽  
Divergent Selection ◽  
Polygenic Scores

scholarly journals No support for the genetic hypothesis of the Black-white achievement gap using polygenic scores and tests for divergent selection

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin Andrew Bird
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Ability ◽  
Genetic Differences ◽  
Divergent Selection ◽  
European Ancestry ◽  
Black And White ◽  
Race Science ◽  
Polygenic Scores ◽  
Cautious Interpretation ◽  
Cognitive Gaps ◽  
New Generation

A protracted debate about the cause of IQ score gaps between Black and white populations has persisted within genetics, anthropology, and psychology. Public genomic data have changed these fields in many ways; as a side effect they have encouraged a new generation of race science. Recently, authors have claimed polygenic scores provide evidence a significant portion of differences in cognitive ability between Black and white populations are caused by genetic differences, frequently claiming these differences are due to natural selection. In light of recent calls for cautious interpretation of polygenic-score analyses, I apply methods to detect genetic differentiation and polygenic selection that address biases in polygenic scores, testing the claim that genetic differences explain cognitive gaps and that divergent selection occurred between populations with African and European ancestry. I provide evidence inconsistent with divergent selection and genetic differences driving the Black-white gap in cognitive ability, demonstrating that past results were inflated.

scholarly journals Socioeconomic and Genomic Roots of Verbal Ability

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guang Guo ◽  
Meng-Jung Lin ◽  
Kathleen M. Harris
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Cognitive Ability ◽  
Verbal Ability ◽  
Add Health ◽  
Environmental Data ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Dna Evidence ◽  
Polygenic Scores

ABSTRACTCognitive ability is one of the most potent and contentious human traits. Many issues surrounding cognitive ability especially those related to heredity is highly charged. Yet, all of the discussion on heredity has been based on non-DNA evidence. It is largely neglected that DNA and environmental data at individual level are indispensable for understanding the development of cognitive ability. In this article, we report findings from a study that uses both ability-related polygenic scores (PGSs) and a rich set of socioeconomic measures from Add Health. In an all-ethnicity sample excluding blacks, a social-science model predicts verbal ability well yielding an R2 of 17.5%. Adding two ability-related PGSs increases this R2 by 1.7%. Such models yield more accurate estimates of the effects of the PGSs and those of SES context, and provide an estimated degree to which SES context is influenced by parental genomes. Schooling and neighborhood remain important to verbal ability even after an early measure of verbal ability is adjusted in the model. Although the influence from the genome is evident, the influences of SES context are critical and cannot be dismissed.

scholarly journals Global Ancestry and Cognitive Ability

Psych ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 431-459 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jordan Lasker ◽  
Bryan J. Pesta ◽  
John G. R. Fuerst ◽  
Emil O. W. Kirkegaard
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Cognitive Ability ◽  
Full Range ◽  
European Ancestry ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Race Difference ◽  
American Sample ◽  
European Americans ◽  
Polygenic Scores ◽  
African American Sample

Using data from the Philadelphia Neurodevelopmental Cohort, we examined whether European ancestry predicted cognitive ability over and above both parental socioeconomic status (SES) and measures of eye, hair, and skin color. First, using multi-group confirmatory factor analysis, we verified that strict factorial invariance held between self-identified African and European-Americans. The differences between these groups, which were equivalent to 14.72 IQ points, were primarily (75.59%) due to difference in general cognitive ability (g), consistent with Spearman’s hypothesis. We found a relationship between European admixture and g. This relationship existed in samples of (a) self-identified monoracial African-Americans (B = 0.78, n = 2,179), (b) monoracial African and biracial African-European-Americans, with controls added for self-identified biracial status (B = 0.85, n = 2407), and (c) combined European, African-European, and African-American participants, with controls for self-identified race/ethnicity (B = 0.75, N = 7,273). Controlling for parental SES modestly attenuated these relationships whereas controlling for measures of skin, hair, and eye color did not. Next, we validated four sets of polygenic scores for educational attainment (eduPGS). MTAG, the multi-trait analysis of genome-wide association study (GWAS) eduPGS (based on 8442 overlapping variants) predicted g in both the monoracial African-American (r = 0.111, n = 2179, p < 0.001), and the European-American (r = 0.227, n = 4914, p < 0.001) subsamples. We also found large race differences for the means of eduPGS (d = 1.89). Using the ancestry-adjusted association between MTAG eduPGS and g from the monoracial African-American sample as an estimate of the transracially unbiased validity of eduPGS (B = 0.124), the results suggest that as much as 20%–25% of the race difference in g can be naïvely explained by known cognitive ability-related variants. Moreover, path analysis showed that the eduPGS substantially mediated associations between cognitive ability and European ancestry in the African-American sample. Subtest differences, together with the effects of both ancestry and eduPGS, had near-identity with subtest g-loadings. This finding confirmed a Jensen effect acting on ancestry-related differences. Finally, we confirmed measurement invariance along the full range of European ancestry in the combined sample using local structural equation modeling. Results converge on genetics as a potential partial explanation for group mean differences in intelligence.

scholarly journals Polygenic scores mediate the Jewish phenotypic advantage in educational attainment and cognitive ability compared with Catholics and Lutherans.

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 366-375 ◽  
Author(s):  
Curtis S. Dunkel ◽  
Michael A. Woodley of Menie ◽  
Jonatan Pallesen ◽  
Emil O. W. Kirkegaard
Keyword(s):  
Educational Attainment ◽  
Cognitive Ability ◽  
Polygenic Scores

scholarly journals Holocene Selection for Variants Associated With General Cognitive Ability: Comparing Ancient and Modern Genomes

2017 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 271-280 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael A. Woodley ◽  
Shameem Younuskunju ◽  
Bipin Balan ◽  
Davide Piffer
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Ability ◽  
Monte Carlo Model ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
General Cognitive Ability ◽  
The Holocene ◽  
Positive Allele ◽  
Polygenic Scores ◽  
Microevolutionary Change ◽  
Selection For ◽  
Allele Count

Human populations living during the Holocene underwent considerable microevolutionary change. It has been theorized that the transition of Holocene populations into agrarianism and urbanization brought about culture-gene co-evolution that favored via directional selection genetic variants associated with higher general cognitive ability (GCA). To examine whether GCA might have risen during the Holocene, we compare a sample of 99 ancient Eurasian genomes (ranging from 4.56 to 1.21 kyr BP) with a sample of 503 modern European genomes (Fst= 0.013), using three different cognitive polygenic scores (130 SNP, 9 SNP and 11 SNP). Significant differences favoring the modern genomes were found for all three polygenic scores (odds ratios = 0.92,p= 001; .81,p= 037; and .81,p= .02 respectively). These polygenic scores also outperformed the majority of scores assembled from random SNPs generated via a Monte Carlo model (between 76.4% and 84.6%). Furthermore, an indication of increasing positive allele count over 3.25 kyr was found using a subsample of 66 ancient genomes (r= 0.22,pone-tailed= .04). These observations are consistent with the expectation that GCA rose during the Holocene.

scholarly journals Polygenic scores for schizophrenia and general cognitive ability: associations with six cognitive domains, premorbid intelligence, and cognitive composite score in individuals with a psychotic disorder and in healthy controls

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Magnus Johan Engen ◽  
Siv Hege Lyngstad ◽  
Torill Ueland ◽  
Carmen Elisabeth Simonsen ◽  
Anja Vaskinn ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Cognitive Ability ◽  
Psychotic Disorder ◽  
Psychotic Disorders ◽  
Cognitive Impairments ◽  
Genetic Correlations ◽  
Healthy Controls ◽  
General Cognitive Ability ◽  
Cognitive Domains ◽  
Polygenic Scores

AbstractCognitive impairments are considered core features in schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders. Cognitive impairments are, to a lesser degree, also documented in healthy first-degree relatives. Although recent studies have shown (negative) genetic correlations between schizophrenia and general cognitive ability, the association between polygenic risk for schizophrenia and individual cognitive phenotypes remains unclear. We here investigated the association between a polygenic score for schizophrenia (SCZPGS) and six well-defined cognitive domains, in addition to a composite measure of cognitive ability and a measure of premorbid intellectual ability in 731 participants with a psychotic disorder and 851 healthy controls. We also investigated the association between a PGS for general cognitive ability (COGPGS) and the same cognitive domains in the same sample. We found no significant associations between the SCZPGS and any cognitive phenotypes, in either patients with a psychotic disorder or healthy controls. For COGPGS we observed stronger associations with cognitive phenotypes in healthy controls than in participants with psychotic disorders. In healthy controls, the association between COGPGS (at the p value threshold of ≥0.01) and working memory remained significant after Bonferroni correction (β = 0.12, p = 8.6 × 10−5). Altogether, the lack of associations between SCZPGS and COGPGS with cognitive performance in participants with psychotic disorders suggests that either environmental factors or unassessed genetic factors play a role in the development of cognitive impairments in psychotic disorders. Working memory should be further studied as an important cognitive phenotype.

scholarly journals How Intelligence Affects Fertility 30 Years On: Retherford and Sewell Revisited — With Polygenic Scores and Numbers of Grandchildren

2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (03) ◽  
pp. 147-153 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael A. Woodley of Menie ◽  
Heiner Rindermann ◽  
Jonatan Pallesen ◽  
Matthew A. Sarraf
Keyword(s):  
Educational Attainment ◽  
Cognitive Ability ◽  
Age At First Birth ◽  
Reproductive Characteristics ◽  
Number Of Children ◽  
Polygenic Scores ◽  
Negative Effect ◽  
Ability Measure ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Positive Effect

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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