Do Gene Predict Your Child's Success In Education?

One of the Fastest Growing Fields in Science Still Makes a Lot of People Very Uncomfortable

Olivia Goldhill | July 24, 2016

Think of someone whose political ideology leads them to ignore and groundlessly reject science. Typically, this often describes those on the right of the political spectrum, where climate change, women’s reproductive health, and even evolution are routinely dismissed. But a massive and fast growing field in science—behavioral genetics—has a huge body of conclusive evidence that, at first reading, seems at odds with left-wing ideology.
This week, Robert Plomin, professor of behavioral genetics at King’s College London, published a paper showing that a child’s educational success can be predicted by their genes.

[Click on link for video] Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3697029/Can-DNA-reveal-exams-Scientists-pinpoint-genes-used-predict-academic-achievement.html

"There are lots of recent studies that have tried to estimate IQ from MRI or EEG readings (sometimes called "neurometric" IQ); many of the teams are based in South Korea and Malaysia. The Malaysian group, based at the MARA University of Technology, has published about a dozen papers over the past two years, involving hundreds of subjects. They can now use EEG readings to sort subjects into one of seven IQ ranges (e.g. 90-100, 120-130) with 83% accuracy; this figure jumps to 98% when subjects are sorted into one of three IQ ranges (low, medium, or high). The South Korean researchers, at Seoul National University, have been combining MRI and fMRI scans to predict IQ scores, and in late 2012 they were granted a patent for their "neurobiological method for measuring human intelligence," which can explain up to 55% of the variance between individual IQ scores.' Source: http://infoproc.blogspot.com/2015/04/iq-prediction-from-structural-mri.html

<more at http://qz.com/740569/one-of-the-fastest-growing-fields-in-science-still-makes-a-lot-of-people-very-uncomfortable/; related articles and links: http://www.genengnews.com/gen-news-highlights/dna-differences-predict-academic-success/81252974/ (DNA Differences Predict Academic Success. July 19, 2016) and http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211949315000198 (Meta-analysis of twin studies highlights the importance of genetic variation in primary school educational achievement. Eveline L. de Zeeuw, Eco J.C. de Geus, and Dorret I. Boomsma. Trends in Neuroscience and Education, Volume 4, Issue 3, September 2015, Pages 69–76. [Abstract: Children differ in their ability to learn what is taught at school. Evidence from twin studies suggests that genetic effects contribute to such differences. The aim of the present study was to systematically review the existing literature, including 61 studies from 11 cohorts, on twin studies of educational achievement in primary school children. The meta-analysis estimated heritability, based on up to 5330 MZ and 7084 DZ twin pairs, at 73% for reading, 49% for reading comprehension, 57% for mathematics, 44% for spelling, 64% for language and 66% for educational achievement. The importance of genetic effects on educational achievement differed between countries. Heritability was consistently high in the Netherlands across educational domains, while this was not always true for the USA and the UK. It can be concluded that genetic variation is an important contributor to the individual differences in educational achievement, with some indication for interaction with country.])>