Intelligence ‘networks’ discovered in brain for the first time

Scientists from Imperial College London have identified for the first time two clusters of genes linked to human intelligence.

(H/T Futurepundit)

Called M1 and M3, these so-called gene networks appear to influence cognitive function – which includes memory, attention, processing speed and reasoning.

Crucially, the scientists have discovered that these two networks – which each contain hundreds of genes – are likely to be under the control of master regulator switches. The researchers are now keen to identify these switches and explore whether it might be feasible to manipulate them. The research is at a very early stage, but the scientists would ultimately like to investigate whether it is possible to use this knowledge of gene networks to boost cognitive function.

Researchers hypothesized that gene regulatory networks starting from the human hippocampus could be informative for genes and pathways relevant to diverse cognitive abilities and neurodevelopmental disease. Hippocampus gene-regulatory networks were inferred a priori, without reference to cognitive phenotypes using fresh-frozen hippocampus samples that had been surgically removed from 122 patients undergoing temporal lobectomy for epilepsy. Conservation of modules was then tested using distinct expression datasets from non-diseased post-mortem hippocampus samples (n=63) and healthy mouse hippocampus samples (n=100). From this, we identified 4 cross-species conserved hippocampal gene co- expression modules whose co-expression relationships are unrelated to epilepsy (M1, M3, M11 and M19). We then used independent gene expression datasets to show that these modules were conserved widely across the human cortex and expressed under tight developmental regulation during brain development. The modules were then integrated with GWAS data relating to four cognitive abilities (general fluid cognitive ability, processing speed, crystalized cognitive ability and verbal delayed recall) in two independent community cohorts (GS:SFHS and LBC1936), and de novo mutation data from parent-offspring trios across five neurodevelopmental disorders (ASD, SCZ, ID, EE, DDD) to reveal convergent gene co-expression modules for healthy human cognitive abilities and neurodevelopmental disease. Full details relating to datasets, experimental methods and references are provided in the manuscript. TLE=temporal lobe epilepsy; ASD=autism spectrum disorder;

Nature Neuroscience – Systems genetics identifies a convergent gene network for cognition and neurodevelopmental disease