Change by challenge: A common genetic basis behind childhood cognitive development and cognitive training
Open accessAbstract
The interplay of genetic and environmental factors behind cognitive development has preoccupied multiple fields of science and sparked heated debates over the decades. Here we tested the hypothesis that developmental genes rely heavily on cognitive challenges—as opposed to natural maturation. Starting with a polygenic score (cogPGS) that previously explained variation in cognitive performance in adults, we estimated its effect in 344 children and adolescents (mean age of 12 years old, ranging from 6 to 25) who showed changes in working memory (WM) in two distinct samples: (1) a developmental sample showing significant WM gains after 2 years of typical, age-related development, and (2) a training sample showing significant, experimentally-induced WM gains after 25 days of an intense WM training. We found that the same genetic factor, cogPGS, significantly explained the amount of WM gain in both samples. And there was no interaction of cogPGS with sample, suggesting that those genetic factors are neutral to whether the WM gains came from development or training. These results represent evidence that cognitive challenges are a central piece in the gene-environment interplay during cognitive development. We believe our study sheds new light on previous findings of interindividual differences in education (rich-get-richer and compensation effects), brain plasticity in children, and the heritability increase of intelligence across the lifespan.
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CogPGS and SES showed positive associations with each other and with baseline measures of intelligence at 9-10 years old.
“CogPGS and SES showed positive associations with each other and with the baseline measures of intelligence at 9–10 years old, in agreement with past research on children and teenagers45–47.”
From The impact of digital media on children’s intelligence while controlling for genetic differences in cognition and socioeconomic background (2022) · cites this paper as [47]
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- Authors
- Sauce, B., Wiedenhoeft, J., Judd, N., & Klingberg, T.
- Affiliations
- Karolinska Institutet (SE)
- Universitätsmedizin Göttingen (DE)
- Corresponding author
- Klingberg, Torkel
- Venue
- npj Science of Learning
- Published
- 2021-06-02
- Volume
- 6
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 16-16
- ISSN
- 2056-7936 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC8172838
- OpenAlex
- W3165495368
- Cited by
- 11
- References
- 68
- Citations by year
- 2025: 3 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 2
- FWCI
- 1.93
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- npj Science of Learning (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- GoeScholar The Publication Server of the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen (Georg-August-Universität Göttingen) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Radboud Repository (Radboud University) (submittedVersion)
- Radboud Repository (Radboud University) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Funders
- Vetenskapsrådet (2015-02850)
- Wenner-Gren Foundation, Sweden
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Cognitive Abilities and Testing
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Genetic Associations and Epidemiology
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Genetics and Physical Performance
- Keywords
- cognitive development, working memory, cognitive training, polygenic risk score, gene-environment interaction, heritability of intelligence, neuroplasticity, compensation effect, children and adolescents
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