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.
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PMID
6650501
TITLE
Errors of inference in the detection of major gene effects on psychological test scores.
ABSTRACT
Computer simulation methods were employed to generate abilities of 10 sets of 250 nuclear families, each comprising a pair of randomly mated parents and two children. It was assumed that the distribution of abilities in the population was normal and caused entirely by additive polygenic effects. A simulated psychological test was administered to each sample to generate test scores for each subject. A different test, consisting of 40 items of varying difficulty and discriminating power, was used in each sample. The "mixed model," specifying a single major gene with polygenic and environmental background variation, was tested for each data set. Likelihood ratios were computed to test for the contribution of a major locus and its conformity to Mendelian segregation. Only one out of 10 samples was consistent with pure multifactorial inheritance. Of the remaining nine samples, four showed non-Mendelian segregation and five were consistent with current statistical criteria for establishing the contribution of a major gene to variation in psychological test scores. This high frequency of false conclusions suggests that the naïve application of such methods to behavioral data is often likely to be misleading. Raw test scores alone are not sufficient to test the mixed model. The development of tractable models for behavioral traits requires the responses of subjects to individual items.
DATE PUBLISHED
1983 Nov
HISTORY
PUBSTATUS PUBSTATUSDATE
pubmed 1983/11/01
medline 1983/11/01 00:01
entrez 1983/11/01 00:00
AUTHORS
NAME COLLECTIVENAME LASTNAME FORENAME INITIALS AFFILIATION AFFILIATIONINFO
Eaves LJ Eaves L J LJ
INVESTIGATORS
JOURNAL
VOLUME: 35
ISSUE: 6
TITLE: American journal of human genetics
ISOABBREVIATION: Am. J. Hum. Genet.
YEAR: 1983
MONTH: Nov
DAY:
MEDLINEDATE:
SEASON:
CITEDMEDIUM: Print
ISSN: 0002-9297
ISSNTYPE: Print
MEDLINE JOURNAL
MEDLINETA: Am J Hum Genet
COUNTRY: United States
ISSNLINKING: 0002-9297
NLMUNIQUEID: 0370475
PUBLICATION TYPE
PUBLICATIONTYPE TEXT
Journal Article
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.
COMMENTS AND CORRECTIONS
GRANTS
GRANTID AGENCY COUNTRY
1R01-GM30250-01 NIGMS NIH HHS United States
GENERAL NOTE
KEYWORDS
MESH HEADINGS
DESCRIPTORNAME QUALIFIERNAME
Adult
Aptitude
Child
Computers
Female
Genes
Genetic Variation
Humans
Male
Models, Genetic
Psychological Tests
SUPPLEMENTARY MESH
GENE SYMBOLS
CHEMICALS
OTHER ID's