Twins: En Route to QTLs for Cognition

Irving I. Gottesman Intuitively one might think that any genetic contributions to our intellectual functioning would decrease with age, as we gather more and more experience. In a new study by McClearn et al. in this issue, an analysis of cognition in 240 pairs of twins in their eighties shows that this is not the case, and that the heritability of cognitive function remains about the same throughout life. In his Perspective, Gottesman discusses how this study sets the stage for dissecting which genes contribute to our thinking process.

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