God Fearing Atheist

To those who follow this sort of thing, it would seem identifying genes that code for neurophysiology relevant to general intelligence have been a hard thing to find. Plomin et al (1994) identified three candidates (the HLA A (B) allele, CTG B33, which is a transnucleotide repeat, and EST00083, a mtDNA marker) that upon subsequent study, havent born out the way one would hope. Moises et al (1999) found no association between EST00083 and high verse mid-range IQ in a large German sample of the general population, and Jacomb et al (1999) similarly found no relationship between CTG B33 polymorphisms and IQ (but a correlation between HLA A (B), though weaker than reported by Polmin et al). The only gene that has stood up to scrutiny is the IGF2R gene (Polmin, 1999).

In a recent edition of Molecular Psychiatry, however, Payton et al found a

AH4-1 being the Heim intelligence test score. More interesting is that

....a relationship between this gene, and one that is known to play in a role in high verses low IQ.

Refs

Jacomb, P. et al. (1999). HLA A and CTGB33 polymorphisms and variation in IQ scores. Personality and Individual Differences, 26: 795-799.

Moises, H. et al. (1999). Mitochondrial DNA marker EST00083 is not associated with high vs. average IQ in a German sample. Intelligence, 26: 344-382.

Payton, A. et al. (2003). Cathepsin D exon 2 polymorphism associated with general intelligence in a healthy older population. Molecular Psychiatry, 8: 14-18

Plomin R., et al. (1994) DNA markers associated with high versus low IQ: The IQ Quantitative Trait Loci (QTL) Project. Behavior Genetics, 24: 107-118.

Plomin, R. (1999). Genetics and general cognitive ability. Nature, 402: 25-29

NOTE: I'd also like to take this opportunity to again put out a request for a formal debate partner on the topic of the between-group heritability of IQ, or something else IQ-related. Interested parties should go here.

-GFA

God Fearing Atheist

Just found the full text of this study. It can be read here.

-GFA