Posted on 02/02/2025 8:04:57 AM PST by ConservativeMind
Polygenic scores (PGS) are metrics used to estimate the genetic predisposition of people to developing specific mental health conditions, personality traits or diseases. In recent years, these metrics have often been used to investigate the intricate connections between genes and environmental factors.
Researchers recently carried out a study aimed at determining whether neuropsychiatric polygenic scores could predict the professional categories that individuals belong to. Their findings suggest that these scores weakly predict the professional category that people belong to.
Specifically, they wished to determine whether PGS scores hinting at a predisposition for specific neuropsychiatric disorders, such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or schizophrenia, are predictors of the membership to specific professional categories (e.g., "computers & math," "arts & design," etc.).
To determine whether a slightly higher predisposition for specific psychiatric traits was aligned with a person's profession, the researchers analyzed data collected as part of two of the world's largest biobanks. One of these is the Million Veteran Program (MVP), which is run in the US, while the other is the UK Biobank (UKBB), collected in the UK.
"A major takeaway is that while we do see statistically significant associations between several neuropsychiatric traits and professional categories, each trait's polygenic score (PGS) explains less than 0.4% of the variation in whether a person enters a particular profession," said Voloudakis. "In other words, there is a real but weak genetic signal in these career placements."
Interestingly, the researchers found that both age and sex played a far greater role in determining the professions that individuals will pursue compared to neuropsychiatric PGSs. Age accounted for approximately 21% of the observed variance in profession, while sex accounted for 7%.
"Our findings emphasize that demographic and social factors far outweigh genetic predisposition when it comes to occupational outcomes," explained Voloudakis.
(Excerpt) Read more at medicalxpress.com ...
There is a great table at the site, but the journal it comes from has that and more, in their supplemental file, here:
I’m curious what my predisposition is.
Profession: banjo player
You might fit under “Community & Social” in the table header.
can predispositions be accounted for with pronouns? asking for a friend.
Interesting, and I would say very accurate as regards myself, I think. But am I correct in interpreting the “FFM agreeable” and “FFM open” as meaning the a high correlation = someone who undervalues being open and agreeable in social interactions? For my area (engineering) this makes perfect sense to me, as we value getting things right over warm fuzzies socially or accepting bad ideas. (”Well, the bridge he designed collapsed, but Bob’s a great guy!”)
What ever you do, don’t google “FFM”
All I know is that I am an ISTJ.
Apparently there is no genetic history, as all banjo players remain virgins.
Ok so what does FFM of it doesn’t mean a particular kind of bedroom interaction?
The research is far more accurate and goes far beyond this article.
I attended psychiatric conferences on this topic over 5 years ago.
It began with a 1,000 prison population study and then expanded.
Based upon genetic testing, they can tell you the probability of specific mental illnesses, the best treatment modality, and the recommended drug dosage levels for that person.
It is amazing.
Long-necked and picky. :)
Career politician?
Thanks! But if I’m understanding that right, it’s saying engineers are skewed in the direction of being/valuing openness and agreeableness. Not sure I can grasp that. There’s a sense in which we value being open to new ideas, but we don’t value or hold to bad/unworkable ideas just for the sake of harmony. (Nor does it fit with an Aspergerish/autistic personality type.) I must be interpreting something in reverse, I’m thinking.
Well, we can rule out ‘musician’.........
Every one I work with at the postal service is absolutely crazy. I must be too.
The conclusions of this study do not even amount to being the decimal dust of a round off error.
A Polygenic Score (PGS) is a numerical risk prediction for a particular disease based upon variations at multiple genetic loci. It is supposed to be based purely on genetic data, but in order to “refine” the results to something useful, other factors such as, age, sex, use of tobacco, use of alcohol, and BMI, are often considered.
It presumes that every genetic variant loci (known as a single-nucleotide polymorphism or SVP) that affects a disease has been identified (not proven), and that the relative effects among the various SVPs that have been identified are well-understood (most definitely not proven).
Even for a relatively simple and well-understood genetic trait such as height, the variation between the PGS predicted height and the actual heights of the people in the study is plus or minus 4 inches. As the entire range of adult human heights is 24 inches, an error range of 8 inches is not all that accurate.
Neuropsychiatric Polygenic Scores (PGS) proposes to extend this to a variety of human behaviors that extend from diagnostic conditions such as Schizophrenia, Bipolar Disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and Depression to Five Factor Model (FFM) Personality Traits such as Agreeableness, Openness, Conscientiousness, and Neuroticism. One does not have to be a professional Test Engineer to realize that the Degrees of Freedom for testing this is rapidly approaching infinity.
After all of this, the study concludes that Neuropsychiatric Polygenic Scores can account for 0.04% (0.0004 in real numbers) of an individual’s predisposition to enter a particular field.
At best, the 0.04% (0.0004) represents false precision to four significant figures, because the accuracy of the study is unknown and unprovable due to all the sources of error, some of which are outlined above.
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