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Study of 300,486 individuals identifies 148 independent genetic loci influencing general cognitive function

  • Gail Davies
  • , Max Lam
  • , Sarah E. Harris
  • , Joey W. Trampush
  • , Michelle Luciano
  • , W. David Hill
  • , Saskia P. Hagenaars
  • , Stuart J. Ritchie
  • , Riccardo E. Marioni
  • , Chloe Fawns-Ritchie
  • , David C.M. Liewald
  • , Judith A. Okely
  • , Ari V. Ahola-Olli
  • , Catriona L.K. Barnes
  • , Lars Bertram
  • , Joshua C. Bis
  • , Katherine E. Burdick
  • , Andrea Christoforou
  • , Pamela Derosse
  • , Srdjan Djurovic
  • Thomas Espeseth, Stella Giakoumaki, Sudheer Giddaluru, Daniel E. Gustavson, Caroline Hayward, Edith Hofer, M. Arfan Ikram, Robert Karlsson, Emma Knowles, Jari Lahti, Markus Leber, Shuo Li, Karen A. Mather, Ingrid Melle, Derek Morris, Christopher Oldmeadow, Teemu Palviainen, Antony Payton, Raha Pazoki, Katja Petrovic, Chandra A. Reynolds, Muralidharan Sargurupremraj, Markus Scholz, Jennifer A. Smith, Albert V. Smith, Natalie Terzikhan, Anbupalam Thalamuthu, Stella Trompet, Sven J. Van Der Lee, Erin B. Ware, B. Gwen Windham, Margaret J. Wright, Jingyun Yang, Jin Yu, David Ames, Najaf Amin, Philippe Amouyel, Ole A. Andreassen, Nicola J. Armstrong, Amelia A. Assareh, John R. Attia, Deborah Attix, Dimitrios Avramopoulos, David A. Bennett, Anne C. Böhmer, Patricia A. Boyle, Henry Brodaty, Harry Campbell, Tyrone D. Cannon, Elizabeth T. Cirulli, Eliza Congdon, Emily Drabant Conley, Janie Corley, Simon R. Cox, Anders M. Dale, Abbas Dehghan, Danielle Dick, Dwight Dickinson, Johan G. Eriksson, Evangelos Evangelou, Jessica D. Faul, Ian Ford, Nelson A. Freimer, He Gao, Ina Giegling, Nathan A. Gillespie, Scott D. Gordon, Rebecca F. Gottesman, Michael E. Griswold, Vilmundur Gudnason, Tamara B. Harris, Annette M. Hartmann, Alex Hatzimanolis, Gerardo Heiss, Elizabeth G. Holliday, Peter K. Joshi, Mika Kähönen, Sharon L.R. Kardia, Ida Karlsson, Luca Kleineidam, David S. Knopman, Nicole A. Kochan, Bettina Konte, John B. Kwok, Stephanie Le Hellard, Teresa Lee, Terho Lehtimäki, Shu Chen Li, Tian Liu, Marisa Koini, Edythe London, Will T. Longstreth, Oscar L. Lopez, Anu Loukola, Tobias Luck, Astri J. Lundervold, Anders Lundquist, Leo Pekka Lyytikäinen, Nicholas G. Martin, Grant W. Montgomery, Alison D. Murray, Anna C. Need, Raymond Noordam, Lars Nyberg, William Ollier, Goran Papenberg, Alison Pattie, Ozren Polasek, Russell A. Poldrack, Bruce M. Psaty, Simone Reppermund, Steffi G. Riedel-Heller, Richard J. Rose, Jerome I. Rotter, Panos Roussos, Suvi P. Rovio, Yasaman Saba, Fred W. Sabb, Perminder S. Sachdev, Claudia L. Satizabal, Matthias Schmid, Rodney J. Scott, Matthew A. Scult, Jeannette Simino, P. Eline Slagboom, Nikolaos Smyrnis, Aïcha Soumaré, Nikos C. Stefanis, David J. Stott, Richard E. Straub, Kjetil Sundet, Adele M. Taylor, Kent D. Taylor, Ioanna Tzoulaki, Christophe Tzourio, André Uitterlinden, Veronique Vitart, Aristotle N. Voineskos, Jaakko Kaprio, Michael Wagner, Holger Wagner, Leonie Weinhold, K. Hoyan Wen, Elisabeth Widen, Qiong Yang, Wei Zhao, Hieab H.H. Adams, Dan E. Arking, Robert M. Bilder, Panos Bitsios, Eric Boerwinkle, Ornit Chiba-Falek, Aiden Corvin, Philip L. De Jager, Stéphanie Debette, Gary Donohoe, Paul Elliott, Annette L. Fitzpatrick, Michael Gill, David C. Glahn, Sara Hägg, Narelle K. Hansell, Ahmad R. Hariri, M. Kamran Ikram, J. Wouter Jukema, Eero Vuoksimaa, Matthew C. Keller, William S. Kremen, Lenore Launer, Ulman Lindenberger, Aarno Palotie, Nancy L. Pedersen, Neil Pendleton, David J. Porteous, Katri Räikkönen, Olli T. Raitakari, Alfredo Ramirez, Ivar Reinvang, Igor Rudan, Dan Rujescu, Reinhold Schmidt, Helena Schmidt, Peter W. Schofield, Peter R. Schofield, John M. Starr, Vidar M. Steen, Julian N. Trollor, Steven T. Turner, Cornelia M. Van Duijn, Arno Villringer, Daniel R. Weinberger, David R. Weir, James F. Wilson, Anil Malhotra, Andrew M. McIntosh, Catharine R. Gale, Sudha Seshadri, Thomas H. Mosley, Jan Bressler, Todd Lencz, Ian J. Deary
  • University of Edinburgh
  • Singapore Institute of Mental Health
  • BrainWorkup, LLC
  • University of Southern California
  • King's College London
  • University of Turku
  • Satakunta Central Hospital
  • Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics
  • University of Washington
  • Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
  • VA Medical Center
  • Harvard University
  • University of Bergen
  • University of Oslo
  • University of Crete
  • University of California at San Diego
  • Medical University of Graz
  • Erasmus University Rotterdam
  • Karolinska Institutet
  • Yale University
  • University of Helsinki
  • University of Cologne
  • Boston University
  • University of New South Wales
  • University of Galway
  • University of Newcastle
  • University of Manchester
  • Imperial College London
  • University of California at Riverside
  • Université de Bordeaux
  • Leipzig University
  • University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
  • Icelandic Heart Association
  • University of Iceland
  • Ghent University
  • Leiden University
  • University of Mississippi
  • University of Queensland
  • Rush University
  • Rush University Medical Center
  • Northwell Health System
  • Royal Melbourne Hospital
  • University of Melbourne
  • Université de Lille
  • Murdoch University
  • Duke University
  • Johns Hopkins University
  • University of Bonn
  • Human Longevity, Inc.
  • University of California at Los Angeles
  • 23andMe Inc.
  • Virginia Commonwealth University
  • National Institutes of Health
  • National Institute for Health and Welfare
  • Helsinki University Central Hospital
  • Folkhalsan
  • University of Glasgow
  • Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg
  • Queensland Institute of Medical Research
  • National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
  • University Mental Health Research Institute
  • Theodor-Theohari Cozzika Foundation
  • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  • Tampere University
  • German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases
  • Mayo Clinic Rochester, MN
  • Prince of Wales Hospital
  • The University of Sydney
  • Max Planck Institute for Human Development
  • Technische Universität Dresden
  • University of Pittsburgh
  • Umeå University
  • University of Aberdeen
  • Stockholm University
  • Gen-Info LLC
  • University of Split
  • Stanford University
  • Kaiser Permanente
  • Indiana University Bloomington
  • University of Oregon
  • The National Heart Lung and Blood Institute's Framingham Heart Study
  • University of Ioannina
  • CHU De Bordeaux
  • University of Toronto
  • University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
  • Baylor College of Medicine
  • Trinity College Dublin
  • Columbia University
  • Broad Institute
  • University of Colorado Boulder
  • Wellcome Trust
  • Neuroscience Research Australia
  • Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences
  • Zucker Hillside Hospital
  • Hofstra North Shore-Long Island Jewish School of Medicine
  • MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit
  • University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

501 Scopus citations

Abstract

General cognitive function is a prominent and relatively stable human trait that is associated with many important life outcomes. We combine cognitive and genetic data from the CHARGE and COGENT consortia, and UK Biobank (total N = 300,486; age 16-102) and find 148 genome-wide significant independent loci (P < 5 × 10-8) associated with general cognitive function. Within the novel genetic loci are variants associated with neurodegenerative and neurodevelopmental disorders, physical and psychiatric illnesses, and brain structure. Gene-based analyses find 709 genes associated with general cognitive function. Expression levels across the cortex are associated with general cognitive function. Using polygenic scores, up to 4.3% of variance in general cognitive function is predicted in independent samples. We detect significant genetic overlap between general cognitive function, reaction time, and many health variables including eyesight, hypertension, and longevity. In conclusion we identify novel genetic loci and pathways contributing to the heritability of general cognitive function.

Original languageEnglish
Article number2098
JournalNature Communications
Volume9
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 1 2018

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