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    Genetics and intelligence differences: five special findings
    by R Plomin and I J Deary
    Molecular Psychiatry advance online publication 16 September 2014; doi: 10.1038/mp.2014.105
    Expert Review

    Quote
    Thinking positively: the genetics of high intelligence
    Unlike psychiatric and other disorders, intelligence is normally distributed with a positive end of high performance as well as a problematic end of intellectual disability. High intelligence is responsible for exceptional performance in many societally valued outcomes, as documented in long-term longitudinal studies.82 Although many other traits, such as those related to athletic performance, are also normally distributed, the importance of high intelligence makes it especially interesting. Genetic exploration of the positive tail of normally distributed traits is important conceptually because it moves away from the notion that we are all the same genetically except for rogue mutations that cause disorders, diseases and disabilities.
    Quantitative genetic research on intelligence indicates that the genetic causes of high intelligence are quantitatively, not qualitatively, different from the rest of the distribution. A recent study of 11000 twin pairs found that the top 15% of the intelligence distribution was just as heritable (0.50) as the rest of the distribution (0.55).
    Related blog post:
    Are bright people normal?
    by James Thompson
    December 2, 2014

    An implication of bright people being "normal" is that the chance of a child being gifted is positively correlated to the IQ of the parents.

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    Quote
    Genetic exploration of the positive tail of normally distributed traits is important conceptually because it moves away from the notion that we are all the same genetically except for rogue mutations that cause disorders, diseases and disabilities.

    Well, there's a straw man slain. Who seriously makes this claim?

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    IMO, what is to often left out are environmental factors. Little is still known (or declassified) on just how an almost infinite environment shapes what genetics gave us to start with.

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    Originally Posted by Dude
    Quote
    Genetic exploration of the positive tail of normally distributed traits is important conceptually because it moves away from the notion that we are all the same genetically except for rogue mutations that cause disorders, diseases and disabilities.

    Well, there's a straw man slain. Who seriously makes this claim?


    I think a lot of this comes from the low percentage of genes that are not shared by all humans, approximately 0.1%. Of course, that .1 percent difference plays a huge role in the differences between people. We are barely more than 1% different from chimpanzees. Also, from the well established studies of how the environment has an influence on how genes are expressed. Two adult identical twins will express some of their genes in different ways due to their life long environmental path. If one considers all influences on a body with the exception of the initial genes one had at the moment of conception as environmental influences, the effect of the environment on all heritable characteristics can easily be show to be significant. This includes intelligence.

    It has been extensively studied with identical twins in adopted homes. The converse has also be extensively studied, unrelated adoptive children in the same home. Given a large enough study one can with a high level of certainty show a correlation between genes and intelligence as well as a correlation between environment and intelligence. Both have a fairly well established correlation. It is not either or. Of course, as most people know correlation does not prove causation. The way I tend to view the problem is how a set of genes behave within some given environment.

    for the numbers I will site:

    http://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/genetics

    just one study of environmental effects on gene expression.

    http://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/environmental-influences-on-gene-expression-536

    Everything else is recalled from many sources or my own opinion.

    Last edited by it_is_2day; 02/20/15 08:42 AM.
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    My lay person's understanding of it having perused some of these studies in the past is that you need both genetic AND environment influences to make a phenotype. In the case of intelligence, if one hasn't got the genetic potential then no amount of environmental factors are going to make one a high performer on fluid reasoning tasks, like analogies in the old SAT, for instance.


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    Yes-- each (genetics and environment) is necessary, but not entirely sufficient if the other is particularly bad or awful, and since the majority have both things be neither awful nor wonderful, well-- that's why the center of the distribution is pretty much where the majority of human beings wind up.







    Schrödinger's cat walks into a bar. And doesn't.
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    [quote=HowlerKarma]Yes-- each (genetics and environment) is necessary, but not entirely sufficient if the other is particularly bad or awful, and since the majority have both things be neither awful nor wonderful, well-- that's why the center of the distribution is pretty much where the majority of human beings wind up. [QUOTE]

    Sometimes environments are just awful, and become more so the greater a gift. Of course in this regard I am talking about schooling / education.

    IMO, genetics aside 2 major factors play a role:

    The parental relationship nurturing a child. This starts at birth. Children require profound love and positive stimulation, far more than most parents give IMO. Parents will subconsciously interact with their child the way their parents did when they were young.

    Schooling. A child in an environment that does not cater to gifts will dull tremulously from what is nothing but a subtle yet extreme trauma experience. I believe few can truly grasp what I mean, though I do not direct this statement toward anyone on this forum.

    The mind is plastic in ways most of us have little frame of reference to. An environment can create or destroy a child. A child could have the best biological predisposition to genius, place them in an environment where such is inconceivable to others and you will end up with a crippled (disabled) person where anyone dumb or bright will agree.

    Failing to fund gifts, even investing in education across the general populace is subjecting each student to what is in essence sensory deprivation. The more gift, the greater it becomes to the person. With that a plethora of problems follows.
















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