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Brain Structure and Cognitive Function

  • Chapter
Cognitive Assessment

Part of the book series: Perspectives on Individual Differences ((PIDF))

Abstract

Only the most hidebound or ideologically driven can still maintain that genetic variation has a negligible impact on general mental ability (e.g., Bouchard, Lykken, McGue, Segal, & Tellegen, 1990; Plomin, DeFries, & McClearn, 1990). Nevertheless, the specific mechanisms by which genes shape and are manifested in brain structure and function have remained elusive. Impediments to progress have included the absence of good animal models and the multifactorial nature of intelligence. Multifactorial inheritance implies multiple genetic and environmental influences so that no single gene, whether regulatory or structural, can dominate IQ variance in the normal range. Identifying individual genes with only modest effects on intellectual function is daunting, but as new techniques from molecular biology become applicable to human intellectual variation (McClearn, Plomin, Gora-Maslak, & Crabbe, 1991), rapid progress can be expected. Until now, most human behavior geneticists necessarily have relied on low-tech methods like twin and adoption designs for untangling genetic and environmental influences on intelligence. However, even these low-tech procedures have provided a remarkably convergent body of findings over the years.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, 78712, USA

    Lee Willerman

  2. Child Study Center, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, 06520, USA

    Robert Schultz

  3. Austin Radiological Association, Austin, Texas, 78756, USA

    J. N. Rutledge

  4. Department of Psychology, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, 84602, USA

    Erin D. Bigler

Authors
  1. Lee Willerman
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  2. Robert Schultz
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  3. J. N. Rutledge
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  4. Erin D. Bigler
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, USA

    Cecil R. Reynolds

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© 1994 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Willerman, L., Schultz, R., Rutledge, J.N., Bigler, E.D. (1994). Brain Structure and Cognitive Function. In: Reynolds, C.R. (eds) Cognitive Assessment. Perspectives on Individual Differences. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-9730-5_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-9730-5_2

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4757-9732-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4757-9730-5

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