Behavior GeneticsPub Date : 2025-05-01Epub Date: 2025-02-27DOI: 10.1007/s10519-025-10218-0
Tong Chen, Amanda M Ramos, Hermine H M Maes, Jennifer L Maggs, Jenae M Neiderhiser
{"title":"Are Depressive and Anxiety Symptoms Differentially Associated with Alcohol Use Behaviors: Multivariate Behavioral Genetic Analyses.","authors":"Tong Chen, Amanda M Ramos, Hermine H M Maes, Jennifer L Maggs, Jenae M Neiderhiser","doi":"10.1007/s10519-025-10218-0","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10519-025-10218-0","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This study examined whether adolescent depressive and anxiety symptoms were differentially associated with alcohol use behaviors, and how these associations were explained by genetic, shared, and nonshared environmental influences. Participants were from the Nonshared Environment and Adolescent Development project of same-sex twin/sibling pairs from 720 families. Twin/sibling depressive and anxiety symptoms were measured by self-report at Time 1 (M<sub>age</sub> = 13.71 years, range = 9-18 years). Alcohol initiation and alcohol use severity were measured by self-report three years after Time 1 (age range = 12-21 years). Phenotypic Cholesky models were used to estimate the variance of depressive symptoms and the unique variance of anxiety symptoms (independent of depressive symptoms), and how these variances were associated with alcohol initiation and alcohol use severity. Biometric Cholesky models then estimated contributions of genetic, shared and nonshared environmental influences to these variances and covariances. Antisocial behaviors were included in all analyses to account for their associations with depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms and alcohol use behaviors. Analyses were conducted using the full, the younger half, and the older half of the sample to explore age differences in all associations. Depressive or anxiety symptoms were not associated with alcohol use behaviors after controlling for variance shared with antisocial behaviors, although age-specific analyses suggested some potential effects to explore in future studies for late adolescence. To conclude, longitudinal associations between depressive or anxiety symptoms and alcohol use behaviors during adolescence were mainly driven by the general psychopathology factor shared between internalizing and externalizing problems.</p>","PeriodicalId":8715,"journal":{"name":"Behavior Genetics","volume":" ","pages":"169-184"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12043400/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143514423","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Behavior GeneticsPub Date : 2025-05-01Epub Date: 2024-12-11DOI: 10.1007/s10519-024-10211-z
Bodine M A Gonggrijp, Steve G A van de Weijer, Catrien C J H Bijleveld, Dorret I Boomsma, Jenny van Dongen
{"title":"Negative Life Events and Epigenetic Ageing: A Study in the Netherlands Twin Register.","authors":"Bodine M A Gonggrijp, Steve G A van de Weijer, Catrien C J H Bijleveld, Dorret I Boomsma, Jenny van Dongen","doi":"10.1007/s10519-024-10211-z","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10519-024-10211-z","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>We aimed to understand the long-term impact of negative life events on epigenetic aging in 1783 adults from the Netherlands Twin Register, analyzing five epigenetic biomarkers (Hannum, Horvath, PhenoAge, GrimAge, DunedinPACE) and a series of negative life events, including victimization and economic hardship. In population-level analyses, associations between a higher number of negative life events (particularly financial adversities, sexual crimes, and job loss) were seen for the GrimAge biomarker. The association between the number of negative life events and financial problems and epigenetic age acceleration measured by the GrimAge biomarker persisted after adjusting for BMI, smoking, and white blood cell counts. In monozygotic twin pairs discordant for negative life events (263 pairs) the associations were diminished, indicating that the population associations may be confounded by shared familial (genetic and environmental) factors. These findings underscore the intricate link between environmental stressors and biological aging, stressing the need for comprehensive studies considering both genetic and environmental influences.</p>","PeriodicalId":8715,"journal":{"name":"Behavior Genetics","volume":" ","pages":"215-230"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142812106","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Behavior GeneticsPub Date : 2025-03-01Epub Date: 2025-02-18DOI: 10.1007/s10519-025-10213-5
Francesca Procopio, Engin Keser, Jacob Knyspel, Margherita Malanchini, Kaili Rimfeld, Robert Plomin
{"title":"The Genetic Specificity of Cognitive Tests After Controlling for General Cognitive Ability.","authors":"Francesca Procopio, Engin Keser, Jacob Knyspel, Margherita Malanchini, Kaili Rimfeld, Robert Plomin","doi":"10.1007/s10519-025-10213-5","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10519-025-10213-5","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Diverse tests of cognitive abilities correlate about 0.30 phenotypically and about 0.60 genetically. Their phenotypic overlap defines general cognitive ability (g), driven largely by genetic overlap. Consequently, much of our understanding of the genetic landscape of specific cognitive tests likely reflects g rather than the tests themselves. Removing this g-associated genetic variance will sharpen research on cognitive tests. Here, we use Genomic Structural Equation Modelling (Genomic SEM) to remove shared genetic variance among 12 diverse cognitive tests that capture verbal and nonverbal cognitive domains. We applied Genomic SEM to summary statistics from the largest genome-wide association studies of verbal tests (GenLang Consortium, five tests) and largely nonverbal tests (UK Biobank, seven tests) to chart the genetic landscape of the 12 tests independent of g as compared to uncorrected cognitive tests. We found that SNP heritabilities were nearly as high for the tests corrected for g as uncorrected: the average SNP heritability was 0.16 (SE = 0.02) for the uncorrected tests and 0.13 (SE = 0.02) for the tests corrected for g. Despite this, the genetic landscape of the cognitive tests transformed after controlling for genomic g. The matrix of positive genetic correlations for the cognitive tests (average 0.45) disappeared after g-correction, and some strong negative correlations emerged; for instance, Memory and Word (-0.72), Fluid and Symbol (-0.72), and Tower and Spelling (-0.79). The summary statistics for these g-corrected cognitive tests can be used by researchers to create polygenic scores that focus on the specificity of the tests.</p>","PeriodicalId":8715,"journal":{"name":"Behavior Genetics","volume":" ","pages":"103-113"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11882725/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143439804","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Behavior GeneticsPub Date : 2025-03-01Epub Date: 2025-02-01DOI: 10.1007/s10519-025-10214-4
Lucas C Perry, Nicolas Chevalier, Michelle Luciano
{"title":"GenomicSEM Modelling of Diverse Executive Function GWAS Improves Gene Discovery.","authors":"Lucas C Perry, Nicolas Chevalier, Michelle Luciano","doi":"10.1007/s10519-025-10214-4","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10519-025-10214-4","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Previous research has supported the use of latent variables as the gold-standard in measuring executive function. However, for logistical reasons genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of executive function have largely eschewed latent variables in favour of singular task measures. As low correlations have traditionally been found between individual executive function (EF) tests, it is unclear whether these GWAS have truly been measuring the same construct. In this study, we addressed this question by performing a factor analysis on summary statistics from eleven GWAS of EF taken from five studies, using GenomicSEM. Models demonstrated a bifactor structure consistent with previous research, with factors capturing common EF and working memory- specific variance. Furthermore, the GWAS performed on this model identified 20 new genomic risk loci for common EF and 4 for working memory reaching genome-wide significance beyond what was found in the constituent GWAS, together resulting in 29 newly mapped EF genes. These results help to clarify the underlying genetic structure of EF and support the idea that EF GWAS are capable of measuring genetic variance related to latent EF constructs even when not using factor scores. Furthermore, they demonstrate that GenomicSEM can combine GWAS with divergent and non-ideal measures of the same phenotype to improve statistical power.</p>","PeriodicalId":8715,"journal":{"name":"Behavior Genetics","volume":" ","pages":"71-85"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11882726/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143073568","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Behavior GeneticsPub Date : 2025-03-01Epub Date: 2024-12-09DOI: 10.1007/s10519-024-10210-0
Giulio Centorame, Nicole M Warrington, Gibran Hemani, Geng Wang, George Davey Smith, David M Evans
{"title":"No Evidence of Interaction Between FADS2 Genotype and Breastfeeding on Cognitive or Other Traits in the UK Biobank.","authors":"Giulio Centorame, Nicole M Warrington, Gibran Hemani, Geng Wang, George Davey Smith, David M Evans","doi":"10.1007/s10519-024-10210-0","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10519-024-10210-0","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Breastfeeding is hypothesised to benefit child health and cognitive functioning by providing long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids, which are essential for brain development. In 2007, Caspi et al. found evidence in two cohorts for an interaction between genetic variation in the FADS2 gene (a gene involved in fatty acid metabolism) and breastfeeding on IQ. However, subsequent studies have provided mixed evidence for the existence of an interaction. We investigated the relationship between genetic variation in the FADS2 region, breastfeeding, and their interaction in up to 335,650 individuals from the UK Biobank. We tested for the interaction over a range of cognitive functioning tests, as well as educational attainment and other traits thought to be influenced by breastfeeding, including cardiometabolic traits, number of offspring, and atopic allergy. FADS2 alleles associated with an increase in docosahexaenoic acid in blood serum (the C allele of rs174575) were associated with decreased verbal-numerical reasoning ( <math><mrow><mi>p</mi> <mo>=</mo> <mn>2.28</mn> <mo>×</mo> <msup><mrow><mn>10</mn></mrow> <mrow><mo>-</mo> <mn>5</mn></mrow> </msup> </mrow> </math> ) and triglycerides ( <math><mrow><mi>p</mi> <mo>=</mo> <mn>1.40</mn> <mo>×</mo> <msup><mrow><mn>10</mn></mrow> <mrow><mo>-</mo> <mn>41</mn></mrow> </msup> </mrow> </math> ), increased number of offspring ( <math><mrow><mi>p</mi> <mo>=</mo> <mn>3.40</mn> <mo>×</mo> <msup><mrow><mn>10</mn></mrow> <mrow><mo>-</mo> <mn>5</mn></mrow> </msup> </mrow> </math> ), total cholesterol ( <math><mrow><mi>p</mi> <mo>=</mo> <mn>5.28</mn> <mo>×</mo> <msup><mrow><mn>10</mn></mrow> <mrow><mo>-</mo> <mn>36</mn></mrow> </msup> </mrow> </math> ), HDL ( <math><mrow><mi>p</mi> <mo>=</mo> <mn>1.42</mn> <mo>×</mo> <msup><mrow><mn>10</mn></mrow> <mrow><mo>-</mo> <mn>51</mn></mrow> </msup> </mrow> </math> ), and LDL cholesterol ( <math><mrow><mi>p</mi> <mo>=</mo> <mn>1.46</mn> <mo>×</mo> <msup><mrow><mn>10</mn></mrow> <mrow><mo>-</mo> <mn>21</mn></mrow> </msup> </mrow> </math> ). We observed no evidence of an interaction in any of the traits, regardless of the modelling strategy on any cognitive or non-cognitive traits. We postulate that the previous positive findings are likely to be spurious, perhaps due to lack of appropriate control for latent population structure.</p>","PeriodicalId":8715,"journal":{"name":"Behavior Genetics","volume":" ","pages":"86-102"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11882634/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142799352","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Behavior GeneticsPub Date : 2025-03-01Epub Date: 2025-02-08DOI: 10.1007/s10519-024-10212-y
Megan E Cooke, Erin Lumpe, Mallory Stephenson, Mia Urjansson, Fazil Aliev, Teemu Palviainen, Sarah J Brislin, Maarit Piirtola, Jill Rabinowitz, Antti Latvala, Peter B Barr, Eero Vuoksimaa, Hermine H M Maes, Richard Viken, Richard J Rose, Jaakko Kaprio, Danielle M Dick, Sari Aaltonen, Jessica E Salvatore
{"title":"Alcohol use in Early Midlife: Findings from the Age 37 Follow-Up Assessment of the FinnTwin12 Cohort.","authors":"Megan E Cooke, Erin Lumpe, Mallory Stephenson, Mia Urjansson, Fazil Aliev, Teemu Palviainen, Sarah J Brislin, Maarit Piirtola, Jill Rabinowitz, Antti Latvala, Peter B Barr, Eero Vuoksimaa, Hermine H M Maes, Richard Viken, Richard J Rose, Jaakko Kaprio, Danielle M Dick, Sari Aaltonen, Jessica E Salvatore","doi":"10.1007/s10519-024-10212-y","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10519-024-10212-y","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This paper provides an overview of the most recent assessment, collected in early midlife, of the FinnTwin12 cohort, a population-based study of Finnish twins born in 1983-1987. The twins were invited to complete an online survey assessing a range of variables, including physical and mental health, alcohol use and problems, other substance use, and early midlife environments (e.g., parenthood). In total, 2,085 individuals (~ 40% of the original sample) completed the survey (551 complete twin pairs, 58.7% female, 37.3% monozygotic, M<sub>age</sub> = 37.2 years, SD = 1.47 years, age range = 34-39 years). Individuals who participated were more likely to be female, monozygotic, and have higher parental education and less hyperactivity/impulsivity and aggression at age 12 when compared to individuals who were invited but did not participate. Parental alcohol misuse and the twins' alcohol use and misuse at age 14 were not related to study retention. Alcohol misuse in early midlife was positively associated with nicotine dependence, lifetime use of cannabis and other drugs, trauma exposure, and depressive symptoms, and negatively associated with physical health and having biological children. These new data expand upon the wealth of measures collected as part of previous assessments, expanding the scope of work on the etiology and correlates of alcohol misuse within a longitudinal, genetically-informed framework. In addition to these new survey measures, we are planning an in-person assessment to collect physiological measurements and conduct additional in-depth phenotyping on a subset of twins who have been more intensively studied over the years.</p>","PeriodicalId":8715,"journal":{"name":"Behavior Genetics","volume":" ","pages":"124-140"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11882652/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143370351","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Behavior GeneticsPub Date : 2025-03-01Epub Date: 2025-02-01DOI: 10.1007/s10519-025-10215-3
Signe B Clemmensen, Jonas Mengel-From, Jaakko Kaprio, Jennifer R Harris, Henrik Frederiksen, Jacob von Bornemann Hjelmborg
{"title":"Tattooing is Mainly Cultural: A Representative Twin Study of Tattooing Determinants.","authors":"Signe B Clemmensen, Jonas Mengel-From, Jaakko Kaprio, Jennifer R Harris, Henrik Frederiksen, Jacob von Bornemann Hjelmborg","doi":"10.1007/s10519-025-10215-3","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10519-025-10215-3","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Tattooing has become increasingly common in recent decades, yet little is known regarding factors that influence tattoo behavior. Sources of influence will be important, for instance in aiding studies of long-term health effects. From the population-based Danish Twin Tattoo Cohort established in 2021, the study included 9,173 randomly selected twins born 1920-2004. Among these were 4,790 (52%) responders to a questionnaire on tattooing and lifestyle factors. There were 55% females, 22% were monozygotic twins, and the median age was 51 years. Shared influence of tattooing over time was assessed by comparing monozygotic and dizygotic twin pairs. Responders were population representative on sex, age, and lifestyle factors. The cumulative incidence of being tattooed before age 25 years increased markedly from 6% (95% CI: 4-7%) for males and 0% (0-1%) for females born in 1925-1960 to 30% (25-35%) for males and 41% (37-46%) for females born in 1981-2004. Tattooing was over twice as common among ever smokers compared to never smokers born in 1981-2004 (average smoking effect at age 25 years: 36% (29-43%)). The likelihood of a twin getting tattooed if the co-twin is tattooed, was 2.0 (1.4-2.6) and 1.8 (1.5-2.2) times higher, for monozygotic and dizygotic twins, respectively. The findings indicate that variation in the likelihood of becoming tattooed is primarily explained by shared environmental factors 65% (35-95%), and that genetic influences explained little of this variation. This study demonstrates that strong environmental exposures shared by twin siblings irrespective of degree of genetic relatedness drive the choice for getting tattooed. We conclude that tattooing is a cultural group clustering phenomenon that goes beyond genetically oriented behavioral characteristics.</p>","PeriodicalId":8715,"journal":{"name":"Behavior Genetics","volume":" ","pages":"114-123"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11882612/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143073570","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Behavior GeneticsPub Date : 2025-03-01Epub Date: 2025-02-21DOI: 10.1007/s10519-025-10216-2
Mila C Roozen, Martien J H Kas
{"title":"Assessing genetic conservation of human sociability-linked genes in C. elegans.","authors":"Mila C Roozen, Martien J H Kas","doi":"10.1007/s10519-025-10216-2","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10519-025-10216-2","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Social behavior is a common though variable trait across animal species. How much of the variation in social behavior is due to biological common mechanisms across animal species is unknown. In this study we examined to what extent human genetic variation in sociability is affected by pathways shared with Caenorhabditis elegans and whether any conserved sociability-linked genes show enhanced levels of essential functions and interactivity. We found inconsistent evidence of increased conservation with more thorough analyses resulting in no evidence of increased conservation of human sociability-linked genes. Conserved genes were highly interactive compared to nonconserved and random genes, while only a limited number of genetic interactions were found to be conserved. No evidence was found for enrichment of social phenotypes in C. elegans orthologs of human sociability-linked genes while evidence for associations with essential functions were limited. The activin A receptor type 2A (ACVR2A) gene appears to play a role in social behavior in both humans and C. elegans, making it an interesting gene for further study.</p>","PeriodicalId":8715,"journal":{"name":"Behavior Genetics","volume":" ","pages":"141-152"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11882721/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143466832","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Behavior GeneticsPub Date : 2025-01-01Epub Date: 2024-12-05DOI: 10.1007/s10519-024-10209-7
Layla Hiramatsu, Vincent Careau, Theodore Garland
{"title":"Can a Hybrid Line Break a Selection Limit on Behavioral Evolution in Mice?","authors":"Layla Hiramatsu, Vincent Careau, Theodore Garland","doi":"10.1007/s10519-024-10209-7","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10519-024-10209-7","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Artificial selection yielded four replicate high runner (HR) lines of mice that reached apparent selection limits (~ threefold increase in wheel revolutions per day vs. four control lines), despite maintenance of additive genetic variance. After 68 generations, we used animal models to test for changes in additive-genetic variances and covariance of the two measured components (average speed and duration) of running distance. We also attempted to break the selection limit by crossing two HR lines, then continuing directional selection on this hybrid line and on the two parental lines for nine generations. The genetic correlation between speed and duration was positive in the base population, but evolved to be negative in the two parental HR lines. Although heritability for both speed and duration (but not distance) increased in the hybrid line, their genetic correlation remained negative. Hybrid F<sub>1</sub> mice from generation 68 parents showed heterosis for running distance, which was lost in subsequent generations, and the hybrid line did not exceed the limit. Both male and female hybrids ran faster than parental lines for most generations, but running duration was intermediate or reduced, reflecting their negative genetic correlation. The evolved genetic trade-off between speed and duration may explain the inability for the hybrid line to break the selection limit for distance run, despite renewed additive genetic variance for at least one of its component traits.</p>","PeriodicalId":8715,"journal":{"name":"Behavior Genetics","volume":" ","pages":"43-58"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11790750/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142784091","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Behavior GeneticsPub Date : 2025-01-01Epub Date: 2024-10-30DOI: 10.1007/s10519-024-10204-y
Jacob Knyspel, Geneviève Morneau-Vaillancourt, Thalia C Eley
{"title":"Using Bifactor Twin Modeling to Assess the Genetic and Environmental Dimensionality of Adult ADHD Symptoms.","authors":"Jacob Knyspel, Geneviève Morneau-Vaillancourt, Thalia C Eley","doi":"10.1007/s10519-024-10204-y","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10519-024-10204-y","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a common and heritable neurodevelopmental condition that has been the subject of a wealth of genetics research. Because ADHD has an early age of onset, most of this work has focused on children, meaning that less is known about the genetics of ADHD in adults. Additionally, while much research has assessed the heritability of ADHD as a general dimension, less has assessed the heritability of individual subtypes (inattention, hyperactivity) or symptoms of ADHD. It therefore remains unclear whether the genetic factors underlying ADHD symptoms conform to a unidimensional or multidimensional structure. The aim of this study was to assess the genetic and environmental dimensionality of adult ADHD symptoms. We analyzed data from 10,454 twins of the Twins Early Development Study, who provided self-reports of ADHD symptoms using the Conners scale at age 21 years. The data conformed well to a psychometric bifactor model, providing support for a general dimension of ADHD in addition to secondary dimensions for inattention and hyperactivity. However, a bifactor independent pathway twin model provided support for a general dimension only at the level of non-shared environmental effects and not additive genetic or shared environmental effects. This suggests that symptoms of ADHD cluster together under a general dimension of non-shared environmental effects, although the two subtypes of ADHD (inattention and hyperactivity) are meaningfully genetically distinct. We found the overall heritability of ADHD to be 40%, comparable with previous estimates for adult ADHD symptoms. Our results provide useful insights into the genetic and environmental architecture of specific ADHD symptoms.</p>","PeriodicalId":8715,"journal":{"name":"Behavior Genetics","volume":" ","pages":"1-11"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11790749/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142543385","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}