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Genome-wide association studies establish that human intelligence is highly heritable and polygenic

Molecular Psychiatry volume 16, pages 996–1005 (2011)Cite this article

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Abstract

General intelligence is an important human quantitative trait that accounts for much of the variation in diverse cognitive abilities. Individual differences in intelligence are strongly associated with many important life outcomes, including educational and occupational attainments, income, health and lifespan. Data from twin and family studies are consistent with a high heritability of intelligence, but this inference has been controversial. We conducted a genome-wide analysis of 3511 unrelated adults with data on 549 692 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and detailed phenotypes on cognitive traits. We estimate that 40% of the variation in crystallized-type intelligence and 51% of the variation in fluid-type intelligence between individuals is accounted for by linkage disequilibrium between genotyped common SNP markers and unknown causal variants. These estimates provide lower bounds for the narrow-sense heritability of the traits. We partitioned genetic variation on individual chromosomes and found that, on average, longer chromosomes explain more variation. Finally, using just SNP data we predicted ∼1% of the variance of crystallized and fluid cognitive phenotypes in an independent sample (P=0.009 and 0.028, respectively). Our results unequivocally confirm that a substantial proportion of individual differences in human intelligence is due to genetic variation, and are consistent with many genes of small effects underlying the additive genetic influences on intelligence.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the cohort participants who contributed to these studies. Genotyping of the CAGES cohorts and the analyses conducted here were supported by the UK's Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC). Phenotype collection in the Lothian Birth Cohort 1921 was supported by the BBSRC, The Royal Society and The Chief Scientist Office of the Scottish Government. Phenotype collection in the Lothian Birth Cohort 1936 was supported by Research Into Ageing (continues as part of Age UK's The Disconnected Mind project). Phenotype collection in the Aberdeen Birth Cohort 1936 was supported by BBSRC, the Welcome Trust and the Alzheimer's Research trust. Phenotype collection in the Manchester and Newcastle Longitudinal Studies of Cognitive Aging cohorts was supported by Social Science Research Council, Medical Research Council, Economic and Social Research Council, Research Into Ageing, Wellcome Trust and Unilever plc. Phenotype collection and genotyping in the Norwegian Cognitive Neuro-Genetics sample was supported by the Research Council of Norway (the FUGE program), the University of Bergen and the Bergen Research Foundation (Bergens Forskingsstiftelse, BFS). The Australian-based researchers acknowledge support from the Australian Research Council and the National Health and Medical Research Council. ML is a Royal Society of Edinburgh/Lloyds TSB Foundation for Scotland Personal Research Fellow. The work was undertaken in the University of Edinburgh Centre for Cognitive Ageing and Cognitive Epidemiology, part of the cross council Lifelong Health and Wellbeing Initiative (G0700704/84698). Funding from the BBSRC, EPSRC, ESRC and MRC is gratefully acknowledged. This work was funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, The Royal Society, The Chief Scientist Office of the Scottish Government, Research Into Ageing, Age UK, the Wellcome Trust, the Alzheimer's Research trust, Social Science Research Council, Medical Research Council, Economic and Social Research Council, Unilever plc, Research Council of Norway, the University of Bergen, Bergen Research Foundation, Australian Research Council, the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council, Royal Society of Edinburgh/Lloyds TSB Foundation and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.

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Author notes

  1. P M Visscher and I J Deary: These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK

    G Davies, D Liewald, M Luciano, K McGhee, L Lopez, A J Gow, J Corley, P Redmond & I J Deary

  2. Institute of Genetics and Molecular Medicine, MRC Human Genetics Unit, Western General Hospital, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK

    A Tenesa

  3. The Roslin Institute, Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, University of Edinburgh, Roslin, UK

    A Tenesa

  4. Centre for Integrated Genomic Medical Research, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK

    A Payton & W Ollier

  5. Queensland Institute of Medical Research, Brisbane, QLD, Australia

    J Yang & P M Visscher

  6. Medical Genetics Section, University of Edinburgh Molecular Medicine Centre, Institute of Genetics and Molecular Medicine, Western General Hospital, Edinburgh, UK

    S E Harris & D J Porteous

  7. Centre for Cognitive Ageing and Cognitive Epidemiology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK

    S E Harris, D Liewald, M Luciano, L Lopez, A J Gow, D J Porteous, J M Starr, P M Visscher & I J Deary

  8. Institute of Child Health, University College London, London, UK

    X Ke

  9. Department of Clinical Medicine, Dr Einar Martens Research Group for Biological Psychiatry, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway

    S Le Hellard, A Christoforou & V M Steen

  10. Institute of Applied Health Sciences, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK

    H C Fox, L J Whalley & G McNeill

  11. Nutrition and Epigenetics Group, Rowett Institute of Nutrition and Health, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK

    P Haggarty

  12. Department of Food and Agricultural Systems, University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, Australia

    M E Goddard

  13. Biosciences Research Division, Department of Primary Industries, Bundoora, VIC, Australia

    M E Goddard

  14. Department of Psychology, Center for the Study of Human Cognition, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway

    T Espeseth & I Reinvang

  15. Department of Biological and Medical Psychology, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway

    A J Lundervold

  16. Department of Medicine, School of Epidemiology and Health Science, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK

    A Pickles

  17. Center for Medical Genetics and Molecular Medicine, Haukeland University Hospital, Bergen, Norway

    V M Steen

  18. School of Community-Based Medicine, Neurodegeneration Research Group, University of Manchester, Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust, Salford, UK

    M Horan & N Pendleton

  19. Geriatric Medicine Unit, University of Edinburgh, Royal Victoria Hospital, Edinburgh, UK

    J M Starr

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  1. G Davies
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Correspondence to P M Visscher or I J Deary.

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Davies, G., Tenesa, A., Payton, A. et al. Genome-wide association studies establish that human intelligence is highly heritable and polygenic. Mol Psychiatry 16, 996–1005 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/mp.2011.85

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