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A genome-wide association study for extremely high intelligence.

Publication ,  Journal Article
Zabaneh, D; Krapohl, E; Gaspar, HA; Curtis, C; Lee, SH; Patel, H; Newhouse, S; Wu, HM; Simpson, MA; Putallaz, M; Lubinski, D; Plomin, R; Breen, G
Published in: Molecular psychiatry
May 2018

We used a case-control genome-wide association (GWA) design with cases consisting of 1238 individuals from the top 0.0003 (~170 mean IQ) of the population distribution of intelligence and 8172 unselected population-based controls. The single-nucleotide polymorphism heritability for the extreme IQ trait was 0.33 (0.02), which is the highest so far for a cognitive phenotype, and significant genome-wide genetic correlations of 0.78 were observed with educational attainment and 0.86 with population IQ. Three variants in locus ADAM12 achieved genome-wide significance, although they did not replicate with published GWA analyses of normal-range IQ or educational attainment. A genome-wide polygenic score constructed from the GWA results accounted for 1.6% of the variance of intelligence in the normal range in an unselected sample of 3414 individuals, which is comparable to the variance explained by GWA studies of intelligence with substantially larger sample sizes. The gene family plexins, members of which are mutated in several monogenic neurodevelopmental disorders, was significantly enriched for associations with high IQ. This study shows the utility of extreme trait selection for genetic study of intelligence and suggests that extremely high intelligence is continuous genetically with normal-range intelligence in the population.

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Published In

Molecular psychiatry

DOI

EISSN

1476-5578

ISSN

1359-4184

Publication Date

May 2018

Volume

23

Issue

5

Start / End Page

1226 / 1232

Related Subject Headings

  • Quantitative Trait, Heritable
  • Psychiatry
  • Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide
  • Phenotype
  • Multifactorial Inheritance
  • Male
  • Longitudinal Studies
  • Intelligence
  • Humans
  • Genome-Wide Association Study
 

Citation

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Zabaneh, D., Krapohl, E., Gaspar, H. A., Curtis, C., Lee, S. H., Patel, H., … Breen, G. (2018). A genome-wide association study for extremely high intelligence. Molecular Psychiatry, 23(5), 1226–1232. https://doi.org/10.1038/mp.2017.121
Zabaneh, D., E. Krapohl, H. A. Gaspar, C. Curtis, S. H. Lee, H. Patel, S. Newhouse, et al. “A genome-wide association study for extremely high intelligence.Molecular Psychiatry 23, no. 5 (May 2018): 1226–32. https://doi.org/10.1038/mp.2017.121.
Zabaneh D, Krapohl E, Gaspar HA, Curtis C, Lee SH, Patel H, et al. A genome-wide association study for extremely high intelligence. Molecular psychiatry. 2018 May;23(5):1226–32.
Zabaneh, D., et al. “A genome-wide association study for extremely high intelligence.Molecular Psychiatry, vol. 23, no. 5, May 2018, pp. 1226–32. Epmc, doi:10.1038/mp.2017.121.
Zabaneh D, Krapohl E, Gaspar HA, Curtis C, Lee SH, Patel H, Newhouse S, Wu HM, Simpson MA, Putallaz M, Lubinski D, Plomin R, Breen G. A genome-wide association study for extremely high intelligence. Molecular psychiatry. 2018 May;23(5):1226–1232.

Published In

Molecular psychiatry

DOI

EISSN

1476-5578

ISSN

1359-4184

Publication Date

May 2018

Volume

23

Issue

5

Start / End Page

1226 / 1232

Related Subject Headings

  • Quantitative Trait, Heritable
  • Psychiatry
  • Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide
  • Phenotype
  • Multifactorial Inheritance
  • Male
  • Longitudinal Studies
  • Intelligence
  • Humans
  • Genome-Wide Association Study