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Cited by 24Genetic Associations and EpidemiologyCognitive Abilities and TestingGenetic Mapping and Diversity in Plants and Animals

Independent evidence for an association between general cognitive ability and a genetic locus for educational attainment

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Trampush, Joey W., Lencz, Todd, Knowles, Emma, Davies, Gail, Guha, Saurav, Pe'er, Itsik, Liewald, David C., Starr, John M. +45 more·2015·American Journal of Medical Genetics Part B: Neuropsychiatric Genetics
DOI 10.1002/ajmg.b.32319PMC PMC4500051
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Abstract

Cognitive deficits and reduced educational achievement are common in psychiatric illness; understanding the genetic basis of cognitive and educational deficits may be informative about the etiology of psychiatric disorders. A recent, large genome‐wide association study (GWAS) reported a genome‐wide significant locus for years of education, which subsequently demonstrated association to general cognitive ability (“g”) in overlapping cohorts. The current study was designed to test whether GWAS hits for educational attainment are involved in general cognitive ability in an independent, large‐scale collection of cohorts. Using cohorts in the Cognitive Genomics Consortium (COGENT; up to 20,495 healthy individuals), we examined the relationship between g and variants associated with educational attainment. We next conducted meta‐analyses with 24,189 individuals with neurocognitive data from the educational attainment studies, and then with 53,188 largely independent individuals from a recent GWAS of cognition. A SNP (rs1906252) located at chromosome 6q16.1, previously associated with years of schooling, was significantly associated with g (P = 1.47 × 10−4) in COGENT. The first joint analysis of 43,381 non‐overlapping individuals for this a priori‐designated locus was strongly significant (P = 4.94 × 10−7), and the second joint analysis of 68,159 non‐overlapping individuals was even more robust (P = 1.65 × 10−9). These results provide independent replication, in a large‐scale dataset, of a genetic locus associated with cognitive function and education. As sample sizes grow, cognitive GWAS will identify increasing numbers of associated loci, as has been accomplished in other polygenic quantitative traits, which may be relevant to psychiatric illness. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

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  • EduYears shows phenotypic correlations and shares genetic components with multiple traits and diseases relevant to medical research, including cognitive function, neurodegeneration and psychiatric disorders.

    “As previous studies and our results suggest, EduYears shows phenotypic correlations and shares genetic components with multiple traits and diseases relevant to medical research, including cognitive function, neurodegeneration and psychiatric disorders43–46”

    From Shared genetic architectures of educational attainment in East Asian and European populations (2024) · cites this paper as [43]

    The Introduction (page unavailable) reports that lower cognitive performance is associated with lower educational attainment, and the Results > COGENT Analysis (page unavailable) finds an education-associated variant also associated with general cognitive ability. The paper does not establish that EduYears shares genetic components with neurodegenerative or psychiatric disorders; its Introduction discusses cognitive deficits in those disorders, which is a narrower point. (LLM, conf=0.85)

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Authors
Trampush, J. W., Lencz, T., Knowles, E., Davies, G., Guha, S., Pe'er, I., Liewald, D. C., Starr, J. M., Djurovic, S., Melle, I., Sundet, K., Christoforou, A., Reinvang, I., Mukherjee, S., DeRosse, P., Lundervold, A., Steen, V. M., John, M., Espeseth, T., Räikkönen, K., Widen, E., Palotie, A., Eriksson, J. G., Giegling, I., Konte, B., Ikeda, M., Roussos, P., Giakoumaki, S., Burdick, K. E., Payton, A., Ollier, W., Horan, M., Scult, M., Dickinson, D., Straub, R. E., Donohoe, G., Morris, D., Corvin, A., Gill, M., Hariri, A., Weinberger, D. R., Pendleton, N., Iwata, N., Darvasi, A., Bitsios, P., Rujescu, D., Lahti, J., Le Hellard, S., Keller, M. C., Andreassen, O. A., Deary, I. J., Glahn, D. C., & Malhotra, A. K.
Affiliations
  • Feinstein Institute for Medical Research (US)
  • Yale University (US)
  • University of Edinburgh (GB)
  • Zucker Hillside Hospital (US)
  • Department of Computer Science Columbia University New York New York
  • Alzheimer Scotland (GB)
  • Oslo University Hospital (NO)
  • University of Oslo (NO)
  • Haukeland University Hospital (NO)
  • Haraldsplass Diakonale Sykehus (NO)
  • University of Helsinki (FI)
  • Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland (FIMM) University of Helsinki Finland
  • Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (DE)
  • Fujita Health University (JP)
  • Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (US)
  • University of Crete (GR)
  • University of Manchester (GB)
  • Duke University (US)
  • National Institutes of Health (US)
  • Trinity College Dublin (IE)
  • Hebrew University of Jerusalem (IL)
  • K.G. Jebsen Centre for Psychosis Research Dr. Einar Martens Research Group for Biological Psychiatry Department of Clinical Medicine University of Bergen Bergen Norway
  • University of Colorado Boulder (US)
Corresponding author
Trampush, Joey W.
ORCID
Venue
American Journal of Medical Genetics Part B: Neuropsychiatric Genetics
Publisher
Wiley
Published
2015-05-07
Volume
168
Issue
5
Pages
363-373
ISSN
  • 1552-4841 (ISSN-L)
  • 1552-485X
DOI
10.1002/ajmg.b.32319
PMC
PMC4500051
OpenAlex
W2152280269
Cited by
24
References
43
Citations by year
2026: 1 · 2024: 1 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 1 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 1 · 2017: 6 · 2016: 4 · 2015: 4
FWCI
0.65
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor (vor)
Locations
  • American Journal of Medical Genetics Part B Neuropsychiatric Genetics (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
  • Research Explorer (The University of Manchester) (submittedVersion)
  • STM:n Hallinnonalan avoin julkaisuarkisto (Julkari) (submittedVersion)
  • WOS
Funders
  • National Institutes of Health (MH079800, MH080173, MH089964, MH080912, MH077807, MH085812, DA031579, DA033369)
  • Norges Forskningsråd (154313/V50, 177458/V50)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Genetic Associations and Epidemiology
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Cognitive Abilities and Testing
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Genetic Mapping and Diversity in Plants and Animals
Keywords
general intelligence, educational attainment, genetic association, cognitive function, polygenic traits, mental illness, cognitive impairment
MeSH terms
Adult, Aged, Cognition, Cognition Disorders, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genetic Loci

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