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

Davies, Gail; Lam, Max; Harris, Sarah E.; Trampush, Joey W.; Luciano, Michelle; Hill, W. David; Hagenaars, Saskia P.; Ritchie, Stuart J.; Marioni, Riccardo E.; Fawns-Ritchie, Chloe; Liewald, David C.M.; Okely, Judith A.; Ahola-Olli, Ari V.; Barnes, Catriona L.K.; Bertram, Lars; Bis, Joshua C.; Burdick, Katherine E.; Christoforou, Andrea; Derosse, Pamela; Djurovic, Srdjan; Espeseth, Thomas; Giakoumaki, Stella; Giddaluru, Sudheer; Gustavson, Daniel E.; Hayward, Caroline; Hofer, Edith; Ikram, M. Arfan; Karlsson, Robert; Knowles, Emma; Lahti, Jari; Leber, Markus; Li, Shuo; Mather, Karen A.; Melle, Ingrid; Morris, Derek; Oldmeadow, Christopher; Palviainen, Teemu; Payton, Antony; Pazoki, Raha; Petrovic, Katja; Reynolds, Chandra A.; Sargurupremraj, Muralidharan; Scholz, Markus; Smith, Jennifer A.; Smith, Albert V.; Terzikhan, Natalie; Thalamuthu, Anbupalam; Trompet, Stella; van der Lee, Sven J.; Ware, Erin B.; Windham, B. Gwen; Wright, Margaret J.; Yang, Jingyun; Yu, Jin; Ames, David; Amin, Najaf; Amouyel, Philippe; Andreassen, Ole Andreas; Armstrong, Nicola J.; Assareh, Amelia A; Attia, John R.; Attix, Deborah; Avramopoulos, Dimitrios; Bennett, David A.; Böhmer, Anne C.; Boyle, Patricia A.; Brodaty, Henry; Campbell, Harry; Cannon, Tyrone D.; Cirulli, Elizabeth T.; Congdon, Eliza; Conley, Emily Drabant; Corley, Janie; Cox, Simon R.; Dale, Anders; Dehghan, Abbas; Dick, Danielle; Dickinson, Dwight; Eriksson, Johan G.; Evangelou, Evangelos; Faul, Jessica D.; Ford, Ian; Freimer, Nelson A.; Gao, He; Giegling, Ina; Gillespie, Nathan A.; Gordon, Scott D.; Gottesman, Rebecca F.; Griswold, Michael E.; Gudnason, Vilmundur; Harris, Tamara B.; Hartmann, Annette M.; Hatzimanolis, Alex; Heiss, Gerardo; Holliday, Elizabeth G.; Joshi, Peter K.; Kähönen, Mika; Kardia, Sharon L.R.; Karlsson, Ida; Kleineidam, Luca; Knopman, David S.; Kochan, Nicole A.; Konte, Bettina; Kwok, John B.; Le Hellard, Stephanie; Lee, Teresa; Lehtimäki, Terho; Li, Shu-Chen; Liu, Tian; Koini, Marisa; London, Edythe; Longstreth, Will T.; Lopez, Oscar L.; Loukola, Anu; Luck, Tobias; Lundervold, Astri; Lundquist, Anders; Lyytikäinen, Leo-Pekka; Martin, Nicholas G.; Montgomery, Grant W.; Murray, Alison D.; Need, Anna C.; Noordam, Raymond; Nyberg, Lars; Ollier, William; Papenberg, Göran; Pattie, Alison; Polasek, Ozren; Poldrack, Russell A.; Psaty, Bruce M.; Reppermund, Simone; Riedel-Heller, Steffi G.; Rose, Richard J.; Rotter, Jerome I.; Roussos, Panos; Rovio, Suvi P.; Saba, Yasaman; Sabb, Fred W.; Sachdev, Perminder S.; Satizabal, Claudia L.; Schmid, Matthias; Scott, Rodney J.; Scult, Matthew A.; Simino, Jeannette; Slagboom, P. Eline; Smyrnis, Nikolaos; Soumaré, Aïcha; Stefanis, Nikos C.; Stott, David J.; Straub, Richard E.; Sundet, Kjetil Søren; Taylor, Adele M.; Taylor, Kent D.; Tzoulaki, Ioanna; Tzourio, Christophe; Uitterlinden, André; Vitart, Veronique; Voineskos, Aristotle N.; Kaprio, Jaakko; Wagner, Michael; Wagner, Holger; Weinhold, Leonie; Wen, K. Hoyan; Widén, Elisabeth; Yang, Qiong; Zhao, Wei; Adams, Hieab H.H.; Arking, Dan E.; Bilder, Robert M.; Bitsios, Panos; Boerwinkle, Eric; Chiba-Falek, Ornit; Corvin, Aiden; De Jager, Philip L.; Debette, Stéphanie; Donohoe, Gary; Elliott, Paul; Fitzpatrick, Annette L.; Gill, Michael; Glahn, David C.; Hägg, Sara; Hansell, Narelle K.; Hariri, Ahmad; Ikram, M. Kamran; Jukema, J. Wouter; Vuoksimaa, Eero; Keller, Matthew C.; Kremen, William S.; Launer, Lenore; Lindenberger, Ulman; Palotie, Aarno; Pedersen, Nancy L.; Pendleton, Neil; Porteous, David J.; Räikkönen, Katri; Raitakari, Olli T.; Ramirez, Alfredo; Reinvang, Ivar; Rudan, Igor; Rujescu, Dan; Schmidt, Reinhold; Schmidt, Helena; Schofield, Peter W.; Schofield, Peter R.; Starr, John M.; Steen, Vidar Martin; Trollor, Julian N.; Turner, Steven T.; Van Duijn, Cornelia M.; Villringer, Arno; Weinberger, Daniel R.; Weir, David R.; Wilson, James F.; Malhotra, Anil; McIntosh, Andrew M.; Gale, Catharine R.; Seshadri, Sudha; Mosley, Thomas H.; Bressler, Jan; Lencz, Todd; Deary, Ian J.
Peer reviewed, Journal article
Published version
Thumbnail
View/Open
URI
https://hdl.handle.net/1956/20548
Date
2018
Metadata
Show full item record
Collections
Original version
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-04362-x
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.
Publisher
Nature Research
Journal
Nature Communications
Copyright
Copyright 2018 The Authors
Attribution CC BY
Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as Attribution CC BY