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. 2008 Jul;38(4):348-60.
doi: 10.1007/s10519-008-9212-5. Epub 2008 Jun 6.

Gene-environment interaction in adults' IQ scores: measures of past and present environment

Sophie van der Sluis  1 , Gonneke Willemsen, Eco J C de Geus, Dorret I Boomsma, Danielle Posthuma
Affiliations

Gene-environment interaction in adults' IQ scores: measures of past and present environment

Sophie van der Sluis et al. Behav Genet. 2008 Jul.

Abstract

Gene-environment interaction was studied in a sample of young (mean age 26 years, N = 385) and older (mean age 49 years, N = 370) adult males and females. Full scale IQ scores (FSIQ) were analyzed using biometric models in which additive genetic (A), common environmental (C), and unique environmental (E) effects were allowed to depend on environmental measures. Moderators under study were parental and partner educational level, as well as urbanization level and mean real estate price of the participants' residential area. Mean effects were observed for parental education, partner education and urbanization level. On average, FSIQ scores were roughly 5 points higher in participants with highly educated parents, compared to participants whose parents were less well educated. In older participants, IQ scores were about 2 points higher when their partners were highly educated. In younger males, higher urbanization levels were associated with slightly higher FSIQ scores. Our analyses also showed increased common environmental variation in older males whose parents were more highly educated, and increased unique environmental effects in older males living in more affluent areas. Contrary to studies in children, however, the variance attributable to additive genetic effects was stable across all levels of the moderators under study. Most results were replicated for VIQ and PIQ.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Path diagram of the biometric model including moderation effects of the observed environmental moderator on the variances and the mean of the twin 1 and twin 2. Parameters a, c and e denote the parts of variance components A (additive genetic effects), C (common environmental effects) and E unique environmental effects) that are unrelated to the moderator, while a’, c’, and e’ denote the parts of A, C and E that depend on the moderator (i.e., the interaction terms). For the mean, parameter m denotes the intercept which is independent of the moderator, and m’ denotes the slope, which is dependent on the moderator
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