Journal article
Genetic influences on four measures of executive functions and their covariation with general cognitive ability: The Older Australian Twins Study
T Lee, MA Mosing, JD Henry, JN Trollor, D Ames, NG Martin, MJ Wright, PS Sachdev
Behavior Genetics | SPRINGER | Published : 2012
Abstract
"Executive functions" (EF) is a multidimensional construct which encompasses many higher-order cognitive control operations, and is considered a potential mediator of age-associated changes in other cognitive domains. Here we examine the heritability of four measures of EF, and the genetic influences on their covariation with general cognitive abilities (GCA) from the Older Australian Twins Study. Participants included 117 pairs of monozygotic twins, 98 pairs of dizygotic twins, and 42 single twins, with a mean age of 71. Genetic modeling showed that additive genetic factors contributed to 59, 63, 29, and 31% of the variance in the four measures: working memory, verbal fluency, response inhi..
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Awarded by National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Acknowledgements
This research was supported by the National Health and Medical Research Council (ID 401162), and facilitated with access to the Australian Twin Registry, a national research resource supported by an Enabling Grant (ID 310667) from the National Health and Medical Research Council, and administered by The University of Melbourne. We would like to thank the OATS Research Team (www.brainage.med.unsw.edu.au) for their contribution to this study, and most of all, we would like to thank the twins and the informants for their participation in the OATS.