Posted on 01/19/2012 5:54:05 AM PST by Pharmboy
A person's intelligence is mostly inherited, it's in their genes, but whether a person can expect to be a clever grandma or grandpa relies on both genes and environment.
"Until now, we have not had an estimate of how much genetic differences affect how people's intelligence changes across the lifetime," study researcher Ian Deary, of the University of Edinburgh in the United Kingdom, said in an email to LiveScience. "These new results mean that researchers can seek both environmental and genetic contributionsto successful cognitive aging."
Previous studies of the genetics of intelligence have been performed on sets of twins or siblings who have been adopted and raised in different environments. These studies showed a genetic component of intelligence, but previous studies weren't able to determine how this changes over a lifetime.
Smart Scots
The researchers studied a group of 1,940 Scottish individuals whose intelligence was measured when they were 11 years old. They were tracked down recently and had their intelligence measured again in old age (65, 70 or 79 years of age). The researchers also collected genomic data from blood samples.
(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...
Ping for smart genes that keep us smart...
“...researchers can seek both environmental and genetic contributionsto successful cognitive...”
Dangerous turf.
This presumes that some people start out with more smarts ... and so end up with more smarts. Right?
Yes...I was also struck by that first sentence. She treated it as it was settled science (which it is)...only the ostriches tried to deny it.
FTA: On the other hand, whether this intelligence changes over time, they found, is very reliant on the environment.
Well, duh!
Levis or Wranglers?
Actually, the surprise here was how much the environment plays into maintaining (or losing) cognition over time. The intelligence you’re born with is mainly determined by genes (as the article notes, mainly from excellent studies looking at identical twins reared apart), so the findings here were perhaps unexpected by some researchers in this field.
I’m guessing part of the environmental would include how much ‘exercise’ an individual gives their brain . It’s like a muscle use it or lose it.
You are a good guesser: the data on what you describe tends to support your supposition.
Yup.
My grandmother’s common sense could have predicted this. If you have the ability to understand and learn math, but you never use it throughout your life, you won’t remember how to do algebraic equations when you are 90.
Those famous “Twins Studies” from the University of Minnesota were conducted by Thomas Bouchard, formerly my neighbor in Berkeley when he and my husband were both students at UC. I used to babysit his daughter, Elizabeth, daily to earn extra money. I wonder how many IQ points I shaved off of that child by being exposed to me every day! LOL
My grandpa wasn’t just a genius, he could see into the future.
“Come over here and pull my finger and you’ll hear the buck snort.”
Darned if he wasn’t right every time.
And I have been following Bouchard's work since the '80s when I saw the first reports. Wow...I am impressed.
And, you survived Buhzerkley!
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| GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach | |
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A person's intelligence is mostly inherited, it's in their genes, but whether a person can expect to be a clever grandma or grandpa relies on both their accountant and their lawyer...
Levi Stauss & Co. support the homosexual agenda and gun-control groups.
Insanity is also heritable........ you get it from your kids
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