“Educational Attainment-Related Loci Identified by GWAS Are Associated With Select Personality Traits and Mathematics and Language Abilities”, 2015 (; backlinks):
We genotyped 3 SNPs previously found to be related with educational attainment [in et al 2013].
We investigated behavioral correlates of these genotypes in a Han Chinese sample.
Educationally advantaged allele associated with less fear of negative evaluation.
Educationally advantaged allele associated with higher mathematical ability.
Educationally advantaged allele associated with higher language ability.
A recent genome-wide association study of educational attainment identified 3 statistically-significant single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) (rs9320913, rs11584700, and rs4851266).
In this study, we expanded this previous work by investigating behavioral correlates of these SNPs in a Han Chinese sample (rs9320913 was not available in our data and was thus replaced by rs12202969, which is in high linkage disequilibrium [ie. correlations of alleles] with the former, r2 = 0.96 in Han Chinese population based on the 1,000 Genomes Project).
Association analysis for individual SNPs showed statistically-significant associations between rs4851266 and a measure of language ability (Chinese word recognition), and between rs12202969 and a personality trait (fear of negative evaluation) and a measure of mathematical ability (number paired-associates learning). A polygenic score based on these 3 SNPs was also statistically-significantly associated with the measures of mathematical and language abilities. Specifically, educationally advantaged alleles identified in the previous study were associated with less fear of negative evaluation and higher mathematical and language abilities in the current study.
This exploratory study provides evidence of psychological mechanisms for the association between genes and educational attainment.
[Keywords: educational attainment, gene, math, language, personality]