Can Genetic Ancestors Influence Educational Prowess?
Can Genetic Ancestors Influence Educational Prowess?
As our ancestors migrated throughout the world and established roots wherever they set foot, they left behind more than just genes. We owe nearly everything to them.
Not only did we inherit similar traits, but there is also much more genetic influence to consider. Here is everything you need to know about our genetic ancestors’ influence on educational prowess:
What is Genetics?
Genetics can be defined as the “scientific study of heredity and genes”. These specific genes determine how certain qualities or traits are passed down through reproduction to offspring.
The changes in the DNA sequence are the foundational building blocks that make you, you. Scientists shared that human beings possess around 20,000 genes.
What Can Be Passed Through Genese?
A variety of elements can be passed down through genes from person to person. They include:
· Personality traits
· Physical traits
· Shared genes/relation
· Preexisting health conditions
· Allergies
· Stress and anxiety
· Genetic mutations such as eye color
· And much, much more!
Genes are powerful as a plethora of things can be passed from parents and ancestors to their offspring. Additionally, many people wonder whether or not intelligence and educational prowess can be affected by genetic influence.
What is Intelligence?
Intelligence is more than just being smart. In fact, according to Howard Gardner’s 1980 theory of defining multiple intelligences, intelligence can be broken down into multiple parts:
· Musical ability
· Linguistics
· Kinesthetic ability
· Ability to understand nature
· Social intelligence
· Interpersonal intelligence
General intelligence can be defined as a concept that includes all abilities such as memory, verbal, math, and reasoning. In other words, intelligence is the ability to reason, learn, and solve problems. IQ—or intelligence quotient—is the score of determining general intelligence after taking an IQ test.
Intelligence and Genes
According to genealogists and scientists, intelligence and genes are highly interconnected. Approximately 60-70% of intelligence can be considered hereditary. Additionally, intelligence can alter from childhood into adulthood.
Analysts revealed that there is no isolated gene that determines intelligence. Therefore, there are hundreds of genetic combinations that can make up general intelligence.
What Genes Impact Intelligence?
Genome-wide association studies—or GWAS—have discovered around half of the available variants that can effectively explain intelligence. Researchers have used large amounts of data or around 20,000 people to determine the relationship between genes and intelligence.
Although no studies have revealed concrete evidence of a single gene that plays a major role in intelligence, scientists do believe multiple numbers of genes are involved in the passing down of intelligence. Researchers shared that environmental influence is a huge contributor to intelligence. This can also be known as nature versus nurture.
Do Our Genes Determine Our Intelligence?
Scientists agree that two-thirds of our capacity for learning, reason and judgment come from our genes.
The Influence of Genetics on the Brain
Most people would agree that Albert Einstein was born with above-average intelligence. After all, his theory of relativity in 1915 might be the greatest insight in human history.
But Albert started as a second-level clerk. He developed his theory of relativity watching trains, which were the primary form of transportation in Europe at the time. Would he have come up with relativity if he wasn’t riding a train every day?
Nature vs. Nurture and Intelligence
The nature vs. nurture debate asks the question: are people born with a set level of intelligence, or is it possible that their life experiences and education hone their intelligence?
The truth is somewhere in-between. We are born with a certain genetic potential for intelligence. How far we take it depends on how we live our lives.
No Genius Gene
Scientists estimate that 60-70% of our intelligence has a genetic basis. Over 500 different genes play a role in determining what we think of as intelligence. There is no single “genius gene”.
Intelligence is our most complex capacity as humans and is highly dependent on our environment. The 30-40% of our intelligence that is developed through “nurture” factors like education and family can cause significant variability in how our genetic potential is realized.
Limits to Our Understanding of the Brain
While we understand the composition and chemistry of the brain, the truth is that neuroscientists are still fundamentally uncertain of how the mind works. What we do know is that our genetic capacity for intelligence has to be cultivated in order to be fully developed.
Other mammals are born with much of the programming they need to survive (i.e., instincts). Humans, however, must constantly cultivate their intelligence through childhood and into adult life.
In the U.S., we educate children for over 12 years in order to develop our mental abilities. Studies of children deprived of social contact have suggested that if certain functions like language and socialization are not learned in early years, they may never be acquired.
Genomic Research on IQ
Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) compare maternal twins to identify genetic commonalities. Researchers use IQ (intelligence quotient) tests to compare these twins at different stages of life. Though critics point out that IQ tests are limited (for example, they do not assess socialization, morality, or motivation), they have proved useful to genetic research.
One finding is that the degree to which genetics play a role in intelligence appears to have an inverse relationship to age. With children, genetics may account for only 20% of intelligence. By adulthood, this figure may grow to 80%.
What is Intelligence, anyway?
General intelligence can be defined as a concept that includes all abilities such as memory, verbal, math, and reasoning. Intelligence is the ability to reason, learn, and solve problems.
Intelligence is more than just being smart. In fact, according to Howard Gardner’s seminal theory of multiple intelligences, intelligence can be broken down into various parts, such as:
· Musical ability
· Linguistics
· Kinesthetic ability
· Ability to understand nature
· Social intelligence
· Interpersonal intelligence
Usefulness of Genetic Testing and Intelligence
Intelligence tests have been at times controversial because of concerns about generalizations about large groups of people. However, it’s clear that education and environmental factors are still critical regardless of genetics.
That being said, our understanding of how our DNA relates to our intelligence will only continue to grow. As genetic research on the brain continues to evolve, our ability to address diseases related to brain function, and ultimately to enhance our brain’s potential, will surely expand.
The answer? Yes and no. Since there is no concrete evidence that it is one single gene that determines intelligence, it can be hard to determine. However, researchers have discovered that 60-70% of intelligence can be considered hereditary.
Environmental influence including nature versus nurture may play the remaining percentage of innate and learned intelligence. Parents and ancestors plus the environment of the child is the best way to determine intelligence.
