Learning abilities and disabilities: Generalist genes, specialist environments

TY - JOUR

T1 - Learning abilities and disabilities

T2 - Generalist genes, specialist environments

AU - Kovas, Y

AU - Plomin, R

PY - 2007/10

Y1 - 2007/10

N2 - Twin studies comparing identical and fraternal twins consistently show substantial genetic influence on individual differences in learning abilities such as reading and mathematics, as well as in other cognitive abilities such as spatial ability and memory. Multivariate genetic research has shown that the same set of genes is largely responsible for genetic influence on these diverse cognitive areas. We call these "generalist genes." What differentiates these abilities is largely the environment, especially nonshared environments that make children growing up in the same family different from one another. These multivariate genetic findings of generalist genes and specialist environments have far-reaching implications for diagnosis and treatment of learning disabilities and for understanding the brain mechanisms that mediate these effects

AB - Twin studies comparing identical and fraternal twins consistently show substantial genetic influence on individual differences in learning abilities such as reading and mathematics, as well as in other cognitive abilities such as spatial ability and memory. Multivariate genetic research has shown that the same set of genes is largely responsible for genetic influence on these diverse cognitive areas. We call these "generalist genes." What differentiates these abilities is largely the environment, especially nonshared environments that make children growing up in the same family different from one another. These multivariate genetic findings of generalist genes and specialist environments have far-reaching implications for diagnosis and treatment of learning disabilities and for understanding the brain mechanisms that mediate these effects

KW - Disabilities

KW - Reading

KW - Mathematics

KW - Genetics

KW - Multivariate

U2 - 10.1111/j.1467-8721.2007.00521.x

DO - 10.1111/j.1467-8721.2007.00521.x

M3 - Article

VL - 16

SP - 284

EP - 288

JO - Current Directions in Psychological Science

JF - Current Directions in Psychological Science

IS - 5

ER -