A new study of around 80,000 people leads the way for scientists to identify 40 intelligence genes. The discovery supposed to answer the most controversial questions is the science about genetic and intelligence.
Phys reported that around 80,000 people were tested to published a study in "Nature Genetics." The study comes up with 40 genes that seem to be related to intelligence.
Intelligence is referred as the ability to learn, to understand and to deal up with new situations. Somehow, it is defined as the ability to apply the knowledge learned to think abstractly and manipulate an environment. Aside from what the dictionary defines, intelligence still has broader terms and similar with the dominant and recessive traits, intelligence also has the genetic basis.
Even though intelligence can be nurtured with so many different factors, including access to information, skills, and experience, it can also come from the genes. "g-factor," is the method used to measure the analytical intelligence, and is recently discovered. This method is known as the most unbiased methods in scientific research to measure human intelligence.
According to The Guardian, a genome-wide association study or GWAS was conducted and is participated by 80,000 people of European descent including 60,000 adults and 20,000 children. Its purpose is to assess the connections of the DNA markers and trait which determines 336 of each individual's specific trait or Single-Nucleotide Polymorphisms.
On top of this, 40 new genes which play a big role in the study of intelligence were found bearing on IQ to 52. The genes are involved in providing instructions for building healthy neurons, construction of the hundreds of trillions of synapses connecting them and the paths they take through along with the 3lb lump of tissue. Professor Danielle Posthuma, a statistical geneticist at the Free University of Amsterdam said, "We want to understand how the brain works as well as learn the biological underpinnings of intelligence."
