High Intelligence And Genetic Inheritance: Are They Related?

What determines the intelligence of a person? There are many voices and studies that defend the idea that our IQ is determined or highly conditioned by the genetic code. However, that relationship is not always direct or as clear as it seems. In fact, there must be many other factors for this intellectual predisposition to manifest itself.

When we speak of high capacities it is almost obligatory to refer to a particular name: William James Sidis. This young man, with a fleeting trajectory and who died in the mid-1940s in the United States, is considered until now the man with the most surprising (and documented) intellectual abilities. In fact, his IQ was estimated to be above 250 points.

The most striking thing about Sidis was his education. If he could enter Harvard University when he was only 9 years old, it was not only because of his genetic inheritance. His mother, Sara, was a doctor and his father, Boris, a psychiatrist and expert in developmental psychology. Thus, if there was one thing these two Ukrainian scientists knew, it was that developing a high IQ did not depend exclusively on our 23 pairs of chromosomes.

High intelligence is the result of an enabling environment coupled with a receptive brain. The Sidis couple oriented their son’s life towards a single objective: to maximize his cognitive abilities. The result exceeded their expectations. However, this young man was more than just a child prodigy – he was a clearly unhappy person.

High intelligence and genetics: smart parents bright children?

Intelligence, like human behavior, is a complex trait. Defining it however is not difficult, because it includes all those experiences where a person shows a clear ability to learn, to reason, plan, solve problems, think abstractly, understand complex ideas and give highly creative responses.

However, knowing exactly what makes individual differences in each of these competencies has always been a challenge. We could say right now that yes, it is genetic inheritance that shapes each of these abilities. What’s more, the University of Glasgow conducted a study in 2016 where it was shown that those genes associated with cognitive functions are inherited mainly from mothers. The X chromosome, so to speak, would largely determine our intellectual potential.

Now, we speak in the conditional because not everything is so clear. A recent study published in the journal “Genetic Reference” has shown us something that experts have been intuiting for almost a century. Social environments are those who shape us, who set the conditions for us to reach or not our full cognitive potential. Genetic inheritance, meanwhile, would only determine us by 40%.

Intelligence, a dimension sensitive to countless factors

Neurologists often comment on the following: We overestimate the idea of ​​high intelligence. When brain surgery is carried out, there is no specific area that distinguishes it. There is no specialized structure to make us brighter than the rest. In reality, it is about an endless number of processes acting in harmony, a hyperconnected synaptic world that makes up a brain that is more awake, more sensitive, more efficient than the average one.

High intelligence may depend on our genes, but a large number of factors are added to it:

• A secure attachment to the mother where there is a constant emotional exchange.
• Positive parenting.
• Proper nutrition.
• School attendance and the opportunity to enjoy a well-resourced education.

• A favorable and stimulating social environment (good family, trained teachers, an adequate and safe community …)

Unfavorable parenting and brain plasticity

At this point, some of our readers are likely to ask a question. What if my genetic inheritance is associated with high intelligence but I have not had a favorable childhood to develop it? What if my environment has not been supportive and my academic performance has been low? Does this mean that I can never improve my IQ?

Every psychologist or passionate about psychology has in mind a key figure in this discipline. We talk about Kurt Lewin. The father of modern social psychology gave us a term that laid the foundations for many later theories and studies: field theory or the power of context. In essence, what Lewin showed us is that human beings are the result of the interaction of all their experiences, past and especially present. We are, our attitudes, what we choose to do with everything we have experienced.

Thus, something that could be seen by studying the trajectory of twins separated at birth and raised in different contexts, is that an unfavorable environment, with scarce economic resources, has a notable influence on the development of intelligence. However, our potential is not completely diminished or quenched by these sterile conditions. Not if the person has the opportunity at a given moment to confront or build an environment that allows them to recover the “lost territory”.

Lewin found that when the twin raised in an unfavorable environment distanced himself from the dictates of his adoptive parents, he was free to let his genotypes express themselves. Their cognitive abilities improved when they found a motivation, an objective according to their interests and an environment that facilitated their goals. The brain, after all, is not a fixed and stable entity. Plasticity, our curiosity and our will are capable of producing true miracles.