Hi All,
This wee in PSY327 we discussed twin studies of MZ and DZ twins. Initially I was unsure as to why anyone would want to use DZ twins in a study of the genetic inheritance of intelligence. However, a peer of mine pointed out that by using MZ and DZ in the same study you can control for epigenetic effects. Speaking of which: I have some questions which maybe a few of you can address in the comments section! If there are statistically significant epigenetics differences between twins are they necessarily biologically significant? For instance, if a twin has significantly more insulin expression than his counterpart does that necessarily mean that the enhanced insulin will have a biologically relevant effect? An analogous example would be height. A 6 foot tall person is significantly taller than a 5 foot tall person; however, is that height significant enough to make the NBA?
I absolutely believe after learning about the 'Jim Twins' and other similar case studies that there is a genetic component to intelligence; however, it is very well possible that these genetic predispositions can be altered by environment induced epigenetic differences. In terms of designing a experiment to answer this, you would need to control for environment and genetics by most likely using MZ/DZ twins. However, you would also need to know how significant epigenetics differences need to be to in order to affect intelligence.
Let me know your thoughts!
Until my next post,
Ryan
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