Researchers Try To Identify the Intelligence Gene

An anonymous reader writes "The world's largest brain study to date, with a team of more than 200 scientists from 100 institutions worldwide collaborated to map the human genes that boost or sabotage the brain's resistance to a variety of mental illnesses and Alzheimer's disease. The study also uncovered new genes that may explain individual differences in brain size and intelligence. From the article: 'Following a brain study on an unprecedented scale, an international collaboration has now managed to tease out a single gene that does have a measurable effect on intelligence. But the effect – although measurable – is small: the gene alters IQ by just 1.29 points. According to some researchers, that essentially proves that intelligence relies on the action of a multitude of genes after all.'"

Comments

Re:That's the stupidest thing I have heard in a wh

[Black Parrot]

This is one of those studies that we're constantly going to hear about in ads for a couple of decades to come and then somebody tries to replicate it and doesn't get a statistically significant result. I bet this gene lets us use 10.1% of our brains or something, right? 1.29%. You have got to be kidding.

a) The "only use 10%" meme is a myth.

b) There's a difference between "big effect" and "statistically significant effect".

6 genes just for height

[djKing]

I've been told, by a bio ethicist, that there at six genes that influence height. So the idea that's there's just one gene for IQ seems odd.