Summary: Environmental factors may have a more significant impact on certain cognitive abilities than genetic factors. The study, which involved 57 pairs of identical twins and 48 pairs of fraternal twins from the Beijing Twin Study, focused on metacognition and mentalization abilities related to understanding and controlling one’s cognitive processes and recognizing the emotions of others, respectively.
The researchers found that regardless of genetic similarity, twins who grew up in similar educational and socioeconomic environments showed similar cognitive traits. This challenges previous beliefs about the heritability of these cognitive skills and suggests that family environment plays a crucial role.
Key facts:
- The study distinguished between general intelligence, which is significantly heritable, and other cognitive abilities such as metacognition and mentalizing, which appear to be more susceptible to environmental factors.
- Participants performed tasks that measured their ability to assess the direction of movement and their confidence in their decisions, as well as their ability to assess the mental states of others.
- The findings showed that twins whose parents had higher education and income levels showed similar metacognitive abilities, suggesting the influence of shared family environment on genetics.
source: Cell Press
Twin studies have proven invaluable in elucidating the influence of genetics and environment on human biology.
Published in “cell reportResearchers studied twins to understand how the interaction of genetics and environment affects cognitive processing (i.e., the way people think).
They found that certain cognitive abilities appear to be modulated by environmental rather than genetic factors.
Senior and corresponding author Wan Xiaohong of Beijing Normal University in China said past research has shown that general intelligence, often called intelligence quotient or IQ, is 50 to 80 percent heritable.
Our study may be the first to demonstrate that another cognitive ability, metacognition and mentalization, may be more susceptible to environmental influences.
Cognitive functions such as perception, attention, memory, language, and planning are considered the basis of general intelligence. These functions regulate how people organize and process new information. In contrast, metacognition focuses on the extent to which people understand and control their cognitive processes.
Metacognition is important in developing learning strategies and is considered a predictor of individual success in school and social achievement. Mentalizing describes the process of identifying and understanding mental states such as emotions and attitudes in ourselves and others.
For the study, researchers recruited 57 pairs of adult identical (identical) twins and 48 pairs of fraternal (fraternal) twins from the Beijing Twin Study (BeTwiSt).
This is a long-term study conducted in 2006, which includes a large amount of data such as brain imaging and psychological surveys of the twins, as well as genetic information.
The twins were asked to perform tasks related to metacognition. These tasks involve observing a set of moving dots on a screen and making perceptual judgments about the net direction of these dots.
They were also asked to rate their confidence in their decisions. To measure mentalizing, participants were asked to rate their partner’s confidence in their decision-making abilities.
The researchers found that twins whose parents were more educated and had higher family incomes, whether identical or fraternal, had similar outcomes. These observations suggest that family environment is more likely than genetics to influence metacognitive abilities.
What we found exceeded our expectations, Wan said.
Decades of extensive research utilizing the classic twin paradigm have consistently demonstrated the heritability of nearly all cognitive abilities studied to date.
“Our findings highlight that these shared family environmental factors, such as parental upbringing and the transmission of cultural values, may play an important role in shaping metacognitive and mentalized mental state representations.
The researchers acknowledged that the study had limitations and that more research is needed. They plan to continue research in this area, including using population studies to further investigate what specific parenting factors and sociocultural values influence individuals’ metacognitive and mentalizing abilities.
funds: This research was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology, the National Natural Science Foundation, the Interdisciplinary Innovation Team of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the Institute of Psychology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
News about neuroscience and metacognition research
author: Christopher Bunker
source: Cell Press
touch: Kristopher Benke – Cell Press
image: Image via Neuroscience News
Original research: Open Access.
“Unique genetic and environmental origins of adult-level cognitive abilities,” by Xiaohong Wan et al. cell report
Abstract
Unique genetic and environmental origins of adult hierarchical cognitive abilities
emphasize
- Human cognitive abilities can be divided into two levels
- First-level cognitive ability is mainly affected by genetic factors
- Second-order cognitive ability is greatly affected by environmental factors
- Multiple family factors influence second-order cognitive abilities
generalize
Human cognitive abilities, from basic perception to complex social behaviors, exhibit huge individual differences.
These cognitive functions can be divided into two hierarchical structures based on the level of cognitive processes. Second-order cognition includes metacognition and mentalization, monitoring and regulating first-order cognitive processes.
These second-order cognitive functions exhibit different abilities. However, it is unclear whether these individual differences in cognitive abilities have distinct origins.
We employed the classic twin paradigm to compare genetic and environmental contributions to second-order cognitive abilities in the same group on the same task.
The results indicate that individual differences in first-level cognitive abilities are primarily influenced by genetic factors. In contrast, second-order cognitive abilities are more affected by common environmental factors.
These findings suggest that adults’ metacognitive and mentalizing abilities are largely determined by their environmental experiences rather than by their biological nature.
#Environment #shapes #emotional #cognition #genes #Neuroscience #News
Image Source : neurosciencenews.com