Genes Unite Executive Functions in Childhood.

ABSTRACT: Individual differences in children's executive functions (EFs) are relevant for a wide range of normal and atypical psychological outcomes across the life span, but the origins of variation in children's EFs are not well understood. We used data from a racially and socioeconomically diverse sample of 505 third- through eighth-grade twins and triplets from the Texas Twin Project to estimate genetic and environmental influences on a Common EF factor and on variance unique to four core EF domains: inhibition, switching, working memory, and updating. As has been previously demonstrated in young adults, the Common EF factor was 100% heritable, which indicates that correlations among the four EF domains are entirely attributable to shared genetic etiology. Nonshared environmental influences were

SUBMITTER: Engelhardt LE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4530525 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature