Genetic architecture of verbal abilities in children and adolescents

Hoekstra, Rosa A.; Bartels, Meike; Leeuwen, Marieke van; Boomsma, Dorret I.

doi:10.1111/j.1467-7687.2009.00843.x

Cited by 14 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 63 publications

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“…Across this 8‐year age range spanning early to middle childhood, the authors found considerable stability in genetic influences (cross‐age r g = 0.57) but also significant change (Davis, Haworth & Plomin, 2009). A second recent twin study of cognitive development employed two complementary twin cohorts who were assessed at different ages on verbal abilities (Hoekstra, Bartels, van Leeuwen & Boomsma, 2009). They showed that verbal abilities have a similar genetic architecture in childhood (9‐year‐olds) and late adolescence (18‐year‐olds), that is, the degree of genetic overlap between different subdomains of verbal ability was similar across the two ages.…”

Section: Developmental Quantitative Geneticsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Is the child ‘father of the Man’? Evaluating the stability of genetic influences across development

Ronald¹

2011

Developmental Science

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This selective review considers findings in genetic research that have shed light on how genes operate across development. We will address the question of whether the child is 'father of the Man' from a genetic perspective. In other words, do the same genetic influences affect the same traits across development? Using a 'taster menu' approach and prioritizing newer findings on cognitive and behavioral traits, examples from the following genetic disciplines will be discussed: (a) developmental quantitative genetics (such as longitudinal twin studies), (b) neurodevelopmental genetic syndromes with known genetic causes (such as Williams syndrome), (c) developmental candidate gene studies (such as those that link infant and adult populations), (d) developmental genome-wide association studies (GWAS), and (e) DNA resequencing. Evidence presented here suggests that there is considerable genetic stability of cognitive and behavioral traits across development, but there is also evidence for genetic change. Quantitative genetic studies have a long history of assessing genetic continuity and change across development. It is now time for the newer, more technology-enabled fields such as GWAS and DNA resequencing also to take on board the dynamic nature of human behavior.

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Section: Developmental Quantitative Geneticsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Is the child ‘father of the Man’? Evaluating the stability of genetic influences across development

Ronald¹

2011

Developmental Science

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“…Both the early studies reviewed by Stromswold (2001) and later studies (e.g. Hayiou-Thomas, Kovas, Harlaar, Plomin, Bishop & Dale, 2006;Hoekstra, Bartels & Boomsma, 2009) have found significant heritability for language, and some evidence for increasing heritability with age. For example, Hoekstra et al (2007) found .48 heritability for language at age 5 and .84 at age 18.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

The etiology of variation in language skills changes with development: a longitudinal twin study of language from 2 to 12 years

Hayiou‐Thomas

Dale

Plomin

2012

Developmental Science

105

101

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The present study is the first long‐term longitudinal examination of the etiology of individual differences in language from early childhood through to adolescence. We applied a multivariate latent factor genetic model to longitudinal data from the Twins Early Development Study in order to (a) compare the magnitude of genetic and environmental influences on language skills in early childhood (2, 3 and 4 years), middle childhood (7, 9 and 10 years), and early adolescence (12 years); and (b) determine to what extent the same genetic and environmental factors underlie variation in language skills at these three stages of language development. We found that while shared environmental influences appear to be dominant (latent factor c2 = .74) in early language, with a smaller though significant role for genetic factors (latent factor a2 = .24), the pattern is reversed by middle childhood such that genetic influences are substantially more important (latent factor a2 = .57–.63 at 7, 9 and 10 years and .47–.57 at 12 years) and shared environmental influences less so (latent factor c2 = .31–.37 at 7, 9 and 10 years and .31–.32 at 12 years). The increase in the heritability of language skills between early and middle childhood appears to be due to new genetic factors that come into play at that transition. In contrast, genetic factors remain stable from middle childhood through to early adolescence, and account for the phenotypic continuity in language skills across these two stages.

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“…In contrast, the heritability of task performance was not detected. Previous studies have demonstrated that executive functions, including verbal fluency, were highly heritable (Friedman et al., ; Hoekstra, Bartels, van Leeuwen, & Boomsma, ; Polderman et al., ). Heritability was also indicated for task performance in the aforementioned adult twin NIRS study (Sakakibara et al., ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Genetic influences on prefrontal activation during a verbal fluency task in children: A twin study using near‐infrared spectroscopy

et al. 2018

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ObjectiveThe genetic and environmental influences on prefrontal function in childhood are underinvestigated due to the difficulty of measuring prefrontal function in young subjects, for which near‐infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) is a suitable functional neuroimaging technique that facilitates the easy and noninvasive measurement of blood oxygenation in the superficial cerebral cortices.MethodUsing a two‐channel NIRS arrangement, we measured changes in bilateral prefrontal blood oxygenation during a category version of the verbal fluency task (VFT) in 27 monozygotic twin pairs and 12 same‐sex dizygotic twin pairs ages 5–17 years. We also assessed the participant's full‐scale intelligence quotient (FIQ) and retrieved parental socioeconomic status (SES). Classical structured equation modeling was used to estimate the heritability.ResultsThe heritability of VFT‐related brain activation was estimated to be 44% and 37% in the right and left prefrontal regions, respectively. We also identified a significant genetic contribution (74%) to FIQ, but did not to VFT task performance. Parental SES was not correlated with FIQ, task performance, or task‐related prefrontal activation.ConclusionsThis finding provides further evidence that variance in prefrontal function has a genetic component since childhood and highlights brain function, as measured by NIRS, as a promising candidate for endophenotyping neurodevelopmental disorders.

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Genetic architecture of verbal abilities in children and adolescents

Cited by 14 publications

References 63 publications

Is the child ‘father of the Man’? Evaluating the stability of genetic influences across development

Is the child ‘father of the Man’? Evaluating the stability of genetic influences across development

The etiology of variation in language skills changes with development: a longitudinal twin study of language from 2 to 12 years

Genetic influences on prefrontal activation during a verbal fluency task in children: A twin study using near‐infrared spectroscopy

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