SynthesisCerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991)2019
A Polygenic Score for Higher Educational Attainment is Associated with Larger Brains.
Synthesis in Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991), 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 24 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
24 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Shared genetic architectures of educational attainment in East Asian and European populations.Nature human behaviour · 2024Pooled it
- What Is the Test-Retest Reliability of Common Task-Functional MRI Measures? New Empirical Evidence and a Meta-Analysis.Psychological science · 2020Pooled it
- ADHD polygenic risk predicts neural signatures of cognitive control: Evidence from midfrontal theta dynamics.Translational psychiatry · 2026Article
- Associations of genetic variants for educational success with risk and time preferences vary by childhood environment.Communications psychology · 2026Article
- Electrophysiological resting-state signatures link polygenic scores to general intelligence.Scientific reports · 2025Observational
- Education as a Modifier of Genetic Influence on Cognitive Ability in Older Adults.Behavior genetics · 2025Article
- Early life stress modulates the genetic influence on brain structure and cognitive function in children.Heliyon · 2024Article
- Polygenic risk for depression and anterior and posterior hippocampal volume in children and adolescents.Journal of affective disorders · 2024Article
- Cognitive performance's critical role in the progression from educational attainment to moderate to vigorous physical activity: insights from a Mendelian randomization study.Frontiers in psychology · 2024Article
- Polygenic scores for social science: Clarification, consensus, and controversy.The Behavioral and brain sciences · 2023Article
- Structural architecture and brain network efficiency link polygenic scores to intelligence.Human brain mapping · 2023Article
- Article
- Educational attainment polygenic scores, socioeconomic factors, and cortical structure in children and adolescents.Human brain mapping · 2022Article
- Of differing methods, disputed estimates and discordant interpretations: the meta-analytical multiverse of brain volume and IQ associations.Royal Society open science · 2022Article
- Resource profile and user guide of the Polygenic Index Repository.Nature human behaviour · 2021Article
- Distinct Regionalization Patterns of Cortical Morphology are Associated with Cognitive Performance Across Different Domains.Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) · 2021Article
- Article
- Investigating the genetic architecture of noncognitive skills using GWAS-by-subtraction.Nature genetics · 2021Article
- The Earliest Origins of Genetic Nurture: The Prenatal Environment Mediates the Association Between Maternal Genetics and Child Development.Psychological science · 2020Article
- Transcriptional and imaging-genetic association of cortical interneurons, brain function, and schizophrenia risk.Nature communications · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
15 authors.
Funding
Abstract
People who score higher on intelligence tests tend to have larger brains. Twin studies suggest the same genetic factors influence both brain size and intelligence. This has led to the hypothesis that genetics influence intelligence partly by contributing to the development of larger brains. We tested this hypothesis using four large imaging genetics studies (combined N = 7965) with polygenic scores derived from a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of educational attainment, a correlate of intelligence. We conducted meta-analysis to test associations among participants' genetics, total brain volume (i.e., brain size), and cognitive test performance. Consistent with previous findings, participants with higher polygenic scores achieved higher scores on cognitive tests, as did participants with larger brains. Participants with higher polygenic scores also had larger brains. We found some evidence that brain size partly mediated associations between participants' education polygenic scores and their cognitive test performance. Effect sizes were larger in the population-based samples than in the convenience-based samples. Recruitment and retention of population-representative samples should be a priority for neuroscience research. Findings suggest promise for studies integrating GWAS discoveries with brain imaging to understand neurobiology linking genetics with cognitive performance.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.