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A gene has been found that is responsible for a person's level of intellectual ability
Last reviewed: 01.07.2025
Not long ago, a large international team of geneticists from the United States, Europe, and Australia published an article in one of the latest issues of the journal Nature Genetics stating that two different variants of the same gene that directly influences human intellectual abilities can either enhance or worsen these abilities. The difference between the two variants is only one coding letter.
Three years ago, several geneticists from the USA, Holland and Australia realized that the data obtained in just one laboratory based on tomographic examination of the brain cannot be considered sufficient to understand the nature of human intelligence. Then it was decided to combine the efforts of several laboratories, which resulted in the ENIGMA (Enhancing Neuro Imaging Genetics through Meta-Analysis) project, which is currently being worked on by about two hundred scientists from dozens of laboratories located around the world.
The main task facing the ENIGMA project concerns the collection of different brain images provided by magnetic resonance imaging and their comparison with DNA and other information about the people who took part in the experiments. This should allow researchers to find genes or their sequences responsible for the predisposition to mental disorders or other diseases related to human intellectual activity.
A secondary goal of the project was to find genes that determine mental abilities, as well as the size of the brain or its functional areas. By comparing brain scans of more than 20,000 people with their IQ test results (the so-called Eysenck IQ test was used), the scientists identified a gene called HMGA2. Genes consist of letter elements, of which there are four variants: A, C, T, and G. It turned out that if the letter T in the HGMA2 gene is replaced by the letter C in a certain section, then the brain volume will most likely be larger, and its areas related to memory and intelligence in general will be more developed.
According to the founders of the ENIGMA project, irrefutable evidence of the influence of this gene on the brain has now been found, and in the future a way to control the action of this gene may appear.
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