The DOI matches its Crossref record; 33 of the 39 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Common DNA Markers Can Account for More Than Half of the Genetic Influence on Cognitive Abilities
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For nearly a century, twin and adoption studies have yielded substantial estimates of heritability for cognitive abilities, although it has proved difficult for genomewide-association studies to identify the genetic variants that account for this heritability (i.e., the missing-heritability problem). However, a new approach, genomewide complex-trait analysis (GCTA), forgoes the identification of individual variants to estimate the total heritability captured by common DNA markers on genotyping arrays. In the same sample of 3,154 pairs of 12-year-old twins, we directly compared twin-study heritability estimates for cognitive abilities (language, verbal, nonverbal, and general) with GCTA estimates captured by 1.7 million DNA markers. We found that DNA markers tagged by the array accounted for .66 of the estimated heritability, reaffirming that cognitive abilities are heritable. Larger sample sizes alone will be sufficient to identify many of the genetic variants that influence cognitive abilities.
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“findings generally supported by heritability estimates from genome-wide data on unrelated individuals (Davies et al., 2011; Plomin et al., 2013).”
From Large Cross-National Differences in Gene × Socioeconomic Status Interaction on Intelligence (2016) · cites this paper as Plomin et al., 2013
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GCTA: a tool for genome-wide complex trait analysis
Yang, J., Lee, S. H., Goddard, M. E., & Visscher, P. M. (2011) · The American Journal of Human Genetics · doi:10.1016/j.ajhg.2010.11.011 · Cited by 8,279
Common SNPs explain a large proportion of the heritability for human height
Yang, J., Benyamin, B., McEvoy, B. P., Gordon, S., Henders, A. K., Nyholt, D. R., Madden, P. A., Heath, A. C., Martin, N. G., Montgomery, G. W., et al. (2010) · Nature Genetics · doi:10.1038/ng.608 · Cited by 4,446 · cited 2×
“GCTA has been used to estimate heritability as captured by genotyping arrays for height (Yang et al., 2010), weight (Yang, Manolio, et al., 2011), psychiatric and other medical disorders (Lee et al., 2012; Lee et al., 2011; Lubke et al., 2012), and personality (Vinkhuyzen, Pedersen, et al., 2012).”
MethodHowie, B. N., Donnelly, P., & Marchini, J. (2009) · PLoS Genetics · doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.1000529 · Cited by 3,928
Genome-wide association studies for complex traits: consensus, uncertainty and challenges
McCarthy, M. I., Abecasis, G. R., Cardon, L. R., Goldstein, D. B., Little, J., Ioannidis, J. P. A., & Hirschhorn, J. N. (2008) · Nature Reviews Genetics · doi:10.1038/nrg2344 · Cited by 2,891 · cited 2×
“GWA studies assess associations between a trait and hundreds of thousands of DNA markers (typically singlenucleotide polymorphisms, SNPs) distributed throughout the 3 billion nucleotide bases of the genome genotyped simultaneously using a DNA array the size of a postage stamp (McCarthy et al., 2008).”
MethodVisscher, P. M., Brown, M. A., McCarthy, M. I., & Yang, J. (2012) · The American Journal of Human Genetics · doi:10.1016/j.ajhg.2011.11.029 · Cited by 2,425
Hundreds of variants clustered in genomic loci and biological pathways affect human height
Lango Allen, H., Estrada, K., Lettre, G., Berndt, S. I., Weedon, M. N., Rivadeneira, F., Willer, C. J., Jackson, A. U., Vedantam, S., Raychaudhuri, S., et al. (2010) · Nature · doi:10.1038/nature09410 · Cited by 1,945 · cited 1×
“This would mean that, with sample sizes in the hundreds of thousands, as in research on height (Lango Allen et al., 2010) and weight (Speliotes et al., 2010), many replicable associations between DNA and cognitive abilities could be found.”
BackgroundPersonal genomes: The case of the missing heritability
Maher, B. (2008) · Nature · doi:10.1038/456018a · Cited by 1,737 · cited 1×
“However, there is a great gap between genes identified so far in GWA studies and heritability estimates— the missing-heritability problem (Maher, 2008).”
BackgroundRare and common variants: twenty arguments
Gibson, G. (2012) · Nature Reviews Genetics · doi:10.1038/nrg3118 · Cited by 1,278 · cited 2×
“Accounting for the rest of the missing heritability is likely to require other DNA variants not well tagged by the common SNPs on current DNA arrays (Gibson, 2012).”
BackgroundUncovering the roles of rare variants in common disease through whole-genome sequencing
Cirulli, E. T., & Goldstein, D. B. (2010) · Nature Reviews Genetics · doi:10.1038/nrg2779 · Cited by 1,136 · cited 1×
“One of many possible reasons for the missing-heritability problem is that the common SNPs (i.e., SNPs for which the frequency of the less frequent allele is greater than .01) incorporated in commercially available DNA arrays miss the contribution of rare DNA variants (Cirulli & Goldstein, 2010).”
BackgroundEstimating Missing Heritability for Disease from Genome-wide Association Studies
Lee, S. H., Wray, N. R., Goddard, M. E., & Visscher, P. M. (2011) · The American Journal of Human Genetics · doi:10.1016/j.ajhg.2011.02.002 · Cited by 1,064 · cited 2×
“GCTA has been used to estimate heritability as captured by genotyping arrays for height (Yang et al., 2010), weight (Yang, Manolio, et al., 2011), psychiatric and other medical disorders (Lee et al., 2012; Lee et al., 2011; Lubke et al., 2012), and personality (Vinkhuyzen, Pedersen, et al., 2012).”
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6 of the 39 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.
Research works printed but not linked: 4
- 10.1146/annurev-psych-120710-100353 · DOI · Paper page
- Kovas Y., 2007, Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 72, 1, 10.1111/j.1540-5834.2007.00439.x · DOI
- Plomin R., 2013, Behavioral genetics
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Items 101–125 of 125
Alexander, D. R. (2020) · Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith · doi:10.1017/9781108566520 · Cited by 3
A study of feasibility for genome-wide haplotype association of complex traits in imaging genetics
Karkar, S., Guen, Y. L., Philippe, C., Dandine-Roulland, C., Pierre-Jean, M., Mangin, J. F., Floch, E. L., & Frouin, V. (2018) · IEEE International Conference on Bioinformatics and Biomedicine · doi:10.1109/bibm.2018.8621306 · Cited by 1
“Heritability studies have shown that the genetic basis for complex traits spans across the whole genome and we expect that causal variants will show only small size effects in the association [4].”
BackgroundDNA Revolution and the Social and Behavioral Sciences
Trzaskowski, M., & Plomin, R. J. (2015) · Wiley eBooks · doi:10.1002/9781118900772.etrds0084
Self-citationThe foundations of educational psychology: The legacy of Cyril Burt
Mackay, T. (2013) · Educational & Child Psychology · doi:10.53841/bpsecp.2013.30.3.37 · Cited by 1
VNTR Polymorphisms in the SLC6A3 Gene and Their Impact on Time Perception and EEG Activity
Marinho, F. V. C., Teixeira, S., Pinto, G. R., de Oliveira, T., Yoshioka, F., Fernandes, H., Miranda, A., Velasques, B., Silva, A. P. R. D. S. E., Cagy, M., et al. (2025) · Bioengineering · doi:10.3390/bioengineering12101118
Perry, L. C., Chevalier, N., & Luciano, M. (2025) · Genes Brain & Behavior · doi:10.1111/gbb.70030 · Cited by 1
The influence of heredity and environment on human cognitive ability.
Pomohaibo, V., Karapuzova, N., Pavlenko, Y., & Fazan, V. (2024) · Wiadomosci lekarskie · doi:10.36740/wlek/195173
Gay Genes? Genetics and Sexual Orientation
Alexander, D. R. (2020) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781108566520.011
Genes, Personality and Personality Disorders
Alexander, D. R. (2020) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781108566520.008
Alexander, D. R. (2020) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781108566520.006
Genes and Environments in Human Development
Alexander, D. R. (2020) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781108566520.004
Alexander, D. R. (2020) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781108566520.013
Definitions of Technical Terms
Alexander, D. R. (2020) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781108566520.015
Genes, Food, Exercise and Weight
Alexander, D. R. (2020) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781108566520.009
Alexander, D. R. (2020) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781108566520.002
Genes, Education and Intelligence
Alexander, D. R. (2020) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781108566520.007
Genes, Religiosity and Political Commitment
Alexander, D. R. (2020) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781108566520.010
Genetics and Epigenetics of Schizophrenia
Ananloo, E. S. (2018) · InTech eBooks · doi:10.5772/intechopen.75930 · Cited by 2
“By using the genomewide complex-trait analysis (GCTA) approach, to estimate the total heritability captured by common DNA markers on genotyping arrays [34], it was shown that individuals at ultra-high risk for the disorder, relatives of the patients with SCZ spectrum disorders, and children with antecedents of SCZ may…”
MethodPolygene Methods in Genome-Wide Association Studies (GWAS)
Cooley, P., & Folsom, R. (2016) · doi:10.3768/rtipress.2016.bk.0016.1608.8
Alexander, D. R. (2020) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781108566520.014
Alexander, D. R. (2020) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781108566520.016
Alexander, D. R. (2020) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781108566520.001
Alexander, D. R. (2020) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781108566520.017
Deutsch, G., & Davis, R. N. (2019) · Handbook of Medical Neuropsychology · doi:10.1007/978-3-030-14895-9_15
Young, G. C. (2016) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-319-24094-7_9
Metadata
- Authors
- Plomin, R., Haworth, C. M. A., Meaburn, E. L., Price, T. S., Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium 2, & Davis, O. S. P.
- Affiliations
- King's College London (GB)
- University of London (GB)
- Pennsylvania State University (US)
- University of Bristol (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Plomin, Robert
- Venue
- Psychological Science
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2013-03-15
- Volume
- 24
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 562-568
- ISSN
- 0956-7976 (ISSN-L)
- 1467-9280
- PMC
- PMC3652710
- OpenAlex
- W2098272018
- Cited by
- 138
- References
- 39
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 1 · 2020: 20 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 8 · 2017: 5 · 2016: 15 · 2015: 19 · 2014: 27 · 2013: 19
- FWCI
- 17.69
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Locations
- Psychological Science (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- BIROn (Birkbeck, University of London) (acceptedVersion)
- Warwick Research Archive Portal (University of Warwick) (acceptedVersion)
- UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
- Research Portal (King's College London) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Bristol Research (University of Bristol) (submittedVersion)
- Explore Bristol Research (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Wellcome Trust (085475/Z/08/Z, WT088984, 085475/B/08/Z)
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (HD044454, R01HD046167, HD046167, R01HD044454)
- 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
- cognitive ability, heritability, missing heritability, twin studies, language skills, verbal ability, nonverbal ability, genetic variants, genotyping arrays
- MeSH terms
- Child, Cognition, Genetic Markers, Genotype, Humans, Intelligence, Phenotype, Twins, Dizygotic, Twins, Monozygotic, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Genome-Wide Association Study
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