Genetic Epidemiology, Translational Neurogenomics, Psychiatric Genetics and Statistical Genetics Laboratories investigate the pattern of disease in families, particularly identical and non-identical twins, to assess the relative importance of genes and environment in a variety of important health problems.
QIMR Home Page
GenEpi Home Page
About GenEpi
Publications
Contacts
Research
Staff Index
Collaborators
Software Tools
Computing Resources
Studies
Search
GenEpi Intranet
PMID
11838538
TITLE
Genetic structure of spatial and verbal working memory.
ABSTRACT
Working memory (WM) encompasses both short-term memory (storage) and executive functions that play an essential role in all forms of cognition. In this study, the genetic structure of storage and executive functions engaged in both a spatial and verbal WM span task is investigated using a twin sample. The sample consists of 143 monozygotic (MZ) and 93 dizygotic (DZ) Japanese twin pairs, ages 16 to 29 years. In 155 (87 MZ, 62 DZ) of these pairs, cognitive ability scores from the Kyodai Japanese IQ test are also obtained. The phenotypic relationship between WM and cognitive ability is confirmed (r = 0.26-0.44). Individual differences in WM storage and executive functions are found to be significantly influenced by genes, with heritability estimates all moderately high (43%-49%), and estimates for cognitive ability comparable to previous studies (65%). A large part of the genetic variance in storage and executive functions in both spatial and verbal modalities is due to a common genetic factor that accounts for 11% to 43% of the variance. In the reduced sample, this common genetic factor accounts for 64% and 26% of the variance in spatial and verbal cognitive ability, respectively. Additional genetic variance in WM (7%-30%) is due to modality specific factors (spatial and verbal) and a storage specific factor that may be particularly important for the verbal modality. None of the variance in cognitive ability is accounted for by the modality and storage genetic factors, suggesting these may be specific to WM.
DATE PUBLISHED
2001 Nov
HISTORY
PUBSTATUS PUBSTATUSDATE
pubmed 2002/02/13 10:00
medline 2002/04/17 10:01
entrez 2002/02/13 10:00
AUTHORS
NAME COLLECTIVENAME LASTNAME FORENAME INITIALS AFFILIATION AFFILIATIONINFO
Ando J Ando J J Faculty of Letters, Keio University, Tokyo, Japan. juko@msa.biglobe.ne.jp
Ono Y Ono Y Y
Wright MJ Wright M J MJ
INVESTIGATORS
JOURNAL
VOLUME: 31
ISSUE: 6
TITLE: Behavior genetics
ISOABBREVIATION: Behav. Genet.
YEAR: 2001
MONTH: Nov
DAY:
MEDLINEDATE:
SEASON:
CITEDMEDIUM: Print
ISSN: 0001-8244
ISSNTYPE: Print
MEDLINE JOURNAL
MEDLINETA: Behav Genet
COUNTRY: United States
ISSNLINKING: 0001-8244
NLMUNIQUEID: 0251711
PUBLICATION TYPE
PUBLICATIONTYPE TEXT
Journal Article
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Twin Study
COMMENTS AND CORRECTIONS
GRANTS
GENERAL NOTE
KEYWORDS
MESH HEADINGS
DESCRIPTORNAME QUALIFIERNAME
Adult
Cerebral Cortex physiology
Female physiology
Humans physiology
Intelligence genetics
Male genetics
Memory, Short-Term physiology
Middle Aged physiology
Models, Genetic physiology
Orientation physiology
Pattern Recognition, Visual physiology
Twins genetics
Verbal Learning physiology
SUPPLEMENTARY MESH
GENE SYMBOLS
CHEMICALS
OTHER ID's