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A general dimension of genetic sharing across diverse cognitive traits inferred from molecular data

Nature Human Behaviour volume 5, pages 49–58 (2021)Cite this article

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Abstract

It has been known since 1904 that, in humans, diverse cognitive traits are positively intercorrelated. This forms the basis for the general factor of intelligence (g). Here, we directly test whether there is a partial genetic basis for individual differences in g using data from seven different cognitive tests (n = 11,263–331,679) and genome-wide autosomal single-nucleotide polymorphisms. A genetic g factor accounts for an average of 58.4% (s.e. = 4.8%) of the genetic variance in the cognitive traits considered, with the proportion varying widely across traits (range, 9–95%). We distil genetic loci that are broadly relevant for many cognitive traits (g) from loci associated specifically with individual cognitive traits. These results contribute to elucidating the aetiology of a long-known yet poorly understood phenomenon, revealing a fundamental dimension of genetic sharing across diverse cognitive traits.

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Fig. 1: Standardized genetic and phenotypic factor solutions for the covariance structure of seven UKB cognitive traits used in the present study.
Fig. 2: Miami plot of unique, independent hits for genetic g and Q (7,857,346 variants).

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Data availability

Complete summary GWAS results from this paper are available at https://www.lothianbirthcohort.ed.ac.uk/content/summary-data-and-other-resources. Raw data for UKB can be requested at https://www.ukbiobank.ac.uk/register-apply/. Raw data for Generation Scotland can be requested at https://www.ed.ac.uk/generation-scotland/for-researchers/access-to-resources/access.

Code availability

Code to perform common factor modelling and multivariate GWAS within Genomic SEM can be found at https://github.com/MichelNivard/GenomicSEM/wiki.

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Acknowledgements

This article benefited from valuable discussions with M. Nivard. This work was supported by National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant no. R01AG054628. The Population Research Center at the University of Texas is supported by NIH grant no. P2CHD042849. I.J.D. and G.D. are with the Lothian Birth Cohorts group, which is funded by Age UK (Disconnected Mind grant), the Medical Research Council (grant no. MR/R024065/1) and the University of Edinburgh’s School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences. This research was conducted using the UK Biobank Resource (Application Nos. 10279 and 4844). We are grateful for the availability of data from Generation Scotland: Scottish Family Health Study. Generation Scotland received core support from the Chief Scientist Office of the Scottish Government Health Directorates (no. CZD/16/6) and the Scottish Funding Council (no. HR03006). Genotyping of the GS: Scottish Family Health Study samples was carried out by the Genetics Core Laboratory at the Edinburgh Clinical Research Facility, University of Edinburgh, UK and was funded by the Medical Research Council UK and the Wellcome Trust (Wellcome Trust Strategic Award, Stratifying Resilience and Depression Longitudinally, no. 104036/Z/14/Z). The funders had no role in study design, data analysis, decision to publish or preparation of the manuscript.

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Javier de la Fuente, Gail Davies.

  2. These authors jointly supervised this work: Elliot M. Tucker-Drob, Ian J. Deary.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA

    Javier de la Fuente, Andrew D. Grotzinger & Elliot M. Tucker-Drob

  2. Population Research Center, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA

    Javier de la Fuente & Elliot M. Tucker-Drob

  3. Lothian Birth Cohorts, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK

    Gail Davies & Ian J. Deary

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

    Gail Davies & Ian J. Deary

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  1. Javier de la Fuente
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  4. Elliot M. Tucker-Drob
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Contributions

I.J.D. and E.M.T.-D. jointly conceived of the idea, designed the study and formulated the analytic plan. J.F. and G.D. performed the analyses, with contributions from A.D.G. I.J.D. and E.M.T.-D. wrote the paper, with contributions from J.F. and G.D. All authors contributed to editing the paper.

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Correspondence to Elliot M. Tucker-Drob or Ian J. Deary.

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Competing interests

I.J.D. is a participant in UKB. All other authors declare no competing interests.

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Supplementary Figs. 1–12, Supplementary Tables 1–6 and Supplementary References.

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de la Fuente, J., Davies, G., Grotzinger, A.D. et al. A general dimension of genetic sharing across diverse cognitive traits inferred from molecular data. Nat Hum Behav 5, 49–58 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-020-00936-2

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