Father’s intelligence makes no difference to child’s IQ levels
Father’s intelligence makes no difference to child’s IQ levels:- Looks like intelligence may soon drop out from the list of qualities that woman look for in their prospective life partner. As per the new study, it is just the mother’s genes that would determine how clever her children would be. The father’s intelligence makes no difference to their IQ levels whatsoever.
Women are more likely to further transmit intelligence genes — which are carried in the X chromosome — to their children as they have two of these while men only have one.
Some, advanced cognitive functions which are further inherited from the father may be automatically deactivated, as per the researchers at the University of Washington in the US.
A category of genes known as the “conditioned genes” are thought to work only if they come from the mother in some of the cases and the father in other cases.
Intelligence is one of the conditioned genes
Intelligence is also believed to be among the conditioned genes that have to come from the mother.
Laboratory studies using the genetically modified mice found that those with an extra dose of the maternal genes developed bigger heads and brains, but had little bodies.
Those with an extra dose of some paternal genes had small brains and larger bodies. Researchers identified the cells that contained only maternal or paternal genes in some six different parts of the mouse brains which had controlled different cognitive functions, from eating habits to memory.
Cells with paternal genes accumulated in parts of the limbic system, which is involved in functions such as sex, food and aggression.
However, researchers have not found any paternal cells in the cerebral cortex, which is where the most advanced cognitive functions take place, such as reasoning, thought, language and planning.
Research makes it clear that genetics is not the only determinant of intelligence — only 40 to 60% of intelligence is estimated to be hereditary, leaving a similar chunk dependent on the environment.
