英语

Genes That Make You Smarter

The contribution genes make intelligence increases as children grow older. This goes against the notion most people hold that as we age, environmental influences gradually overpower the genetic legacy we are born with and may have implications for education.

“People assume the genetic influence goes down with age because the environmental differences between people pile up in life” says Robert Plomin. “What we found was quit amazing, and goes in the other direction.”

Previous studies have shown variation in intelligence are at least partly due to genetic. To find out whether this genetic contribution varies with age, Plomin’s team pooled date from six separate studies carried out in the US, the UK, Australia and the Netherlands, involving a total of 11,000 pairs of twins.

In these studies, the researchers tested twins on reasoning, logic and arithmetic to measure a quantity called genetic cognitive ability, or “g”. Each study also included both identical twins, with same genes, and fraternal twins, sharing about half their genes, making it possible to distinguish the contributions of genes and environment to their g scores.

Plomin’s team calculated that in childhood, genes account for about 41 percent of the variation in intelligence. In adolescence, this rose to 55 percent; by young adulthood, it was 66 percent.

No one knows why the influence from genes should increase with age, but Plomin’s suggests that as children get older, they become better at exploiting and manipulating their environment to suit their genetic needs, and says “Kids with high g will use their environment to foster their cognitive ability and choose friends who are like-minded.” Children with medium to low g May choose less challenging pastimes and activities, further emphasizing their genetic legacy.

Is there any way to interfere with the pattern? Perhaps. “The evidence of strong heritability doesn’t mean at all that there’s nothing you can do about it,” say’s Susanne Jaeggi, “Form our own work, the ones that started off with lower IQ scores had higher gains after training.”

Plomin suggests that genetic differences may be more emphasized if all children share an identical curriculum instead of it being tailored to children share an identical curriculum instead of it being tailored to children’s natural abilities. “My inclination would be to give everyone a good education, but put more effort into the lower end,” he says.

Intelligence researcher Paul Thompson agrees: “It shows that education needs to steer kids towards things drawing out their natural talents.”

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