Genetic and environmental underpinnings of spatial abilities and their role in predicting academic achievement and success in STEM

Behavior Genetics Association 45th Annual Meeting Abstract: Spatial abilities encompass several factors that are differentiable from general cognitive ability (intelligence). Importantly, spatial abilities have been shown to be significant predictors of many life outcomes, even after controlling for intelligence. Quantitative genetic studies have shown that diverse measures of spatial ability are moderately heritable (30–50 %), although some important aspects of spatial ability such as navigation and map-reading have been neglected. Little is known about the factor structure of spatial measures or their links with academic achievement, especially STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering, mathematics). For these reasons, we launched a program of research creating novel online gamified measures of diverse spatial abilities including mental rotation, spatial visualization, spatial scanning, navigation, and map-reading. We piloted the measures on 100 unrelated individuals; all measures produced good test–retest reliability (0.7 on average). The battery was administered online to 1000 twin pairs (age 19–21) from the UK representative Twins Early Development Study (TEDS). Phenotypically, the results provided some evidence for the multifactorial nature of spatial ability, independent of intelligence, despite substantial correlations among the factors. Univariate genetic analyses yielded moderate heritability for all tests and factors. One of the most interesting findings was that these spatial factors correlated with success in STEM subjects, especially with achievement in mathematics, even after controlling for intelligence, and genetic factors largely accounted for these phenotypic associations TEDS is supported by a program grant to RP from the UK Medical Research Council [G0901245; and previously G0500079], with additional support from the US National Institutes of Health [HD044454; HD059215]. NS and KR are supported by Medical Research Council

From Rare Mutations to Normal Variation: Genetic Association Study of Mathematical, Spatial, and General Cognitive Abilities

Background. Behavioral genetic fndings suggest that complex traits, such as mathemat-ical ability, general cognitive ability (intelligence; g), and spatial ability, are infuenced by many common genetic variants of very small efects that operate across the ability continuum. Common genetic variants may also be responsible for cognitive defcits as-sociated with rare genetic syndromes, in which whole genomic regions may be afected. To date, relatively few common genetic variants involved in cognitive traits have been identifed, and these only explain a small proportion of variance in these traits. Objective. Te aim of the study was to fnd associations between mathematics-re-lated traits and single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) within chromosomal regions involved in Williams and Prader-Willi disorders. Both disorders are characterized by patterns of weaknesses and strengths in cognitive abilities. Two types of analyses were performed (SNP-based and gene-based), using genotypic and phenotypic data available for 3000 participants from the UK. Results. SNP-based tests indicated that none of the SNPs passed the demanding multiple testing correction level for any of the phenotypes. Gene-based analysis sug-gested that 2 pseudogenes (i.e., GOLGA8I and WHAMMP3) were signifcantly asso-ciated with intelligence, and 1 gene (i.e., TUBGCP5) was signifcantly associated with mathematics at 16 years of age. Conclusion. Te results are consistent with other fndings demonstrating that cog-nitive traits are infuenced by many common genetic variants with very small efects. The results also suggest that a small number of these variants may be located in the chromo-somal regions afected in Prader-Willi and Williams syndrome regions

Evidence for a unitary structure of spatial cognition beyond general intelligence

Performance in everyday spatial orientation tasks (e.g. map reading and navigation) has been considered functionally separate from performance on more abstract object-based spatial abilities (e.g. mental rotation and visualization). However, evidence remains scarce and unsystematic. With a novel gamified battery, we assessed six tests of spatial orientation in a virtual environment and examined their association with ten object-based spatial tests, as well as their links to general cognitive ability (g). We further estimated the role of genetic and environmental factors in underlying variation and covariation in these spatial tests. Participants (N = 2,660) were part of the Twins Early Development Study, aged 19 to 22. The 6 tests of spatial orientation clustered into a single ‘Navigation’ factor that was 64% heritable. Examining the structure of spatial ability across all 16 tests, three factors emerged: Navigation, Object Manipulation and Visualization. These, in turn, loaded strongly onto a general factor of Spatial Ability, which was highly heritable (84%). A large portion (45%) of this high heritability was independent of g. The results from this most comprehensive investigation of spatial abilities to date point towards the existence of a common genetic network that supports all spatial abilities

Rotation is visualisation, 3D is 2D: using a novel measure to investigate the genetics of spatial ability.

Spatial abilities–defined broadly as the capacity to manipulate mental representations of objects and the relations between them–have been studied widely, but with little agreement reached concerning their nature or structure. Two major putative spatial abilities are “mental rotation” (rotating mental models) and “visualisation” (complex manipulations, such as identifying objects from incomplete information), but inconsistent findings have been presented regarding their relationship to one another. Similarly inconsistent findings have been reported for the relationship between two- and three-dimensional stimuli. Behavioural genetic methods offer a largely untapped means to investigate such relationships. 1,265 twin pairs from the Twins Early Development Study completed the novel “Bricks” test battery, designed to tap these abilities in isolation. The results suggest substantial genetic influence unique to spatial ability as a whole, but indicate that dissociations between the more specific constructs (rotation and visualisation, in 2D and 3D) disappear when tested under identical conditions: they are highly correlated phenotypically, perfectly correlated genetically (indicating that the same genetic influences underpin performance), and are related similarly to other abilities. This has important implications for the structure of spatial ability, suggesting that the proliferation of apparent subdomains may sometimes reflect idiosyncratic tasks rather than meaningful dissociations

Phenotypic and genetic evidence for a unifactorial structure of spatial abilities

Spatial abilities encompass several skills differentiable from general cognitive ability (g). Importantly, spatial abilities have been shown to be significant predictors of many life outcomes, even after controlling for g. To date, no studies have analyzed the genetic architecture of diverse spatial abilities using a multivariate approach. We developed “gamified” measures of diverse putative spatial abilities. The battery of 10 tests was administered online to 1,367 twin pairs (age 19–21) from the UK-representative Twins Early Development Study (TEDS). We show that spatial abilities constitute a single factor, both phenotypically and genetically, even after controlling for g. This spatial ability factor is highly heritable (69%). We draw three conclusions: (i) The high heritability of spatial ability makes it a good target for gene-hunting research; (ii) some genes will be specific to spatial ability, independent of g; and (iii) these genes will be associated with all components of spatial ability

Identifying Sources of Individual and Cross-Cultural Differences in Mathematical Ability

Good mathematical skills are extremely important in today’s quantitatively oriented societies and are related to various desirable life outcomes, ranging from better jobs and education to the mental health and wellbeing. The development of mathematical skills is influenced by complex blend of biological and cultural factors. Mathematical ability is a highly heritable trait, although the search for the genetic variants affecting it has to date not been very fruitful. Cross-cultural research identified some differences in mathematics, with children from East Asia outperforming the rest of the world on mathematical tests across different ages. This thesis aims to provide new insights into the sources of individual and cross-cultural differences in mathematics and mathematically related domains. Chapters 1 and 2 provided both, literature review of the factors influencing individual differences in mathematical achievement, as well as two approaches employed in this thesis to study them. Chapters 3, 4 and 5 investigated the existence and the sources of the individual and cross-cultural differences in mathematics and mathematically related traits, both before and at the beginning of the formal schooling in more than 600 5-9-years old children from 5 distinct populations UK, China, Russia, and Kyrgyz and Dungan populations from Kyrgyzstan. The results suggest that in line with the previous studies, cross-cultural differences in mathematics exist even at the beginning of the formal education with the Chinese children outperforming the rest of the populations. The mechanisms related to individual differences in mathematics are similar across populations before the formal schooling and become more diverse as the children start formal education. Chapter 6 reports an investigation into the genetic variants implicated in mathematics and mathematically related traits employing the genotypic and phenotypic data from two samples: (1) ~3000 12- and 16- year old children from Twin Early Development Study (TEDS) in the UK; and (2) 371 17-21-year old students from 4 Russia. In line with the previous research, the results suggest that mathematics and mathematically related traits are influenced by many genetic variants of very small effects and that the larger sample sizes are needed to address the discrepancy between heritability estimates and number of identified genetic variants. Chapter 7 concludes with general discussion and suggestions for future directions

An evaluation of the AdOPt parenting programme

This report provides findings from an evaluation of the AdOpt parenting programme and its effectiveness in improving parenting capabilities among participating parents

Attention, eye movement planning and number development in infancy : a cross-syndrome comparison

Numerous studies in animals, adult patients and typically developing infants have suggested that there are two kinds of independent cognitive systems for processing numbers: one for computing approximate numerosities and the other for calculating exact number. Studies focussing on adult patients and typically developing infants cannot determine whether the two specialised number systems are prespecified in the infant brain nor map the relationship between these systems in infancy and the outcome over developmental time, as both of the systems are present early in infancy in typical development. However, results from atypical populations, such as Williams syndrome and Down syndrome, will be discussed in order to shed further light upon these questions, arguing that cross-syndrome differences in large number processing in infancy are more predictive of later development of numerical abilities than small number processing. In addition, evidence from cross-syndrome differences in attention and eye-movement planning will be discussed in order to provide further insight into how domain-general differences impact on the specific number processing systems

Studying rare genetic syndromes as a method of investigating aetiology of normal variation in educationally relevant traits

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