Developmental cognitive genetics: how psychology can inform genetics and vice versa

Developmental neuropsychology is concerned with uncovering the underlying basis of developmental disorders such as specific language impairment (SLI), developmental dyslexia, and autistic disorder. Twin and family studies indicate that genetic influences play an important part in the aetiology of al...

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Main Author: Bishop, D
Other Authors: Experimental Psychology Society
Format: Journal article
Language:English
Published: Psychology Press 2006
Subjects:
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author Bishop, D
author2 Experimental Psychology Society
author_facet Experimental Psychology Society
Bishop, D
author_sort Bishop, D
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description Developmental neuropsychology is concerned with uncovering the underlying basis of developmental disorders such as specific language impairment (SLI), developmental dyslexia, and autistic disorder. Twin and family studies indicate that genetic influences play an important part in the aetiology of all of these disorders, yet progress in identifying genes has been slow. One way forward is to cut loose from conventional clinical criteria for diagnosing disorders and to focus instead on measures of underlying cognitive mechanisms. Psychology can inform genetics by clarifying what the key dimensions are for heritable phenotypes. However, it is not a one-way street. By using genetically informative designs, one can gain insights about causal relationships between different cognitive deficits. For instance, it has been suggested that low-level auditory deficits cause phonological problems in SLI. However, a twin study showed that, although both types of deficit occur in SLI, they have quite different origins, with environmental factors more important for auditory deficit, and genes more important for deficient phonological short-term memory. Another study found that morphosyntactic deficits in SLI are also highly heritable, but have different genetic origins from impairments of phonological short-term memory. A genetic perspective shows that a search for <em>the</em> underlying cause of developmental disorders may be misguided, because they are complex and heterogeneous and are associated with multiple risk factors that only cause serious disability when they occur in combination.
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spelling oxford-uuid:315391ae-ea79-44e6-9d49-5b4ad90f74282022-03-26T13:07:14ZDevelopmental cognitive genetics: how psychology can inform genetics and vice versaJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:315391ae-ea79-44e6-9d49-5b4ad90f7428Experimental psychologyEnglishOxford University Research Archive - ValetPsychology Press2006Bishop, DExperimental Psychology SocietyDevelopmental neuropsychology is concerned with uncovering the underlying basis of developmental disorders such as specific language impairment (SLI), developmental dyslexia, and autistic disorder. Twin and family studies indicate that genetic influences play an important part in the aetiology of all of these disorders, yet progress in identifying genes has been slow. One way forward is to cut loose from conventional clinical criteria for diagnosing disorders and to focus instead on measures of underlying cognitive mechanisms. Psychology can inform genetics by clarifying what the key dimensions are for heritable phenotypes. However, it is not a one-way street. By using genetically informative designs, one can gain insights about causal relationships between different cognitive deficits. For instance, it has been suggested that low-level auditory deficits cause phonological problems in SLI. However, a twin study showed that, although both types of deficit occur in SLI, they have quite different origins, with environmental factors more important for auditory deficit, and genes more important for deficient phonological short-term memory. Another study found that morphosyntactic deficits in SLI are also highly heritable, but have different genetic origins from impairments of phonological short-term memory. A genetic perspective shows that a search for <em>the</em> underlying cause of developmental disorders may be misguided, because they are complex and heterogeneous and are associated with multiple risk factors that only cause serious disability when they occur in combination.
spellingShingle Experimental psychology
Bishop, D
Developmental cognitive genetics: how psychology can inform genetics and vice versa
title Developmental cognitive genetics: how psychology can inform genetics and vice versa
title_full Developmental cognitive genetics: how psychology can inform genetics and vice versa
title_fullStr Developmental cognitive genetics: how psychology can inform genetics and vice versa
title_full_unstemmed Developmental cognitive genetics: how psychology can inform genetics and vice versa
title_short Developmental cognitive genetics: how psychology can inform genetics and vice versa
title_sort developmental cognitive genetics how psychology can inform genetics and vice versa
topic Experimental psychology
work_keys_str_mv AT bishopd developmentalcognitivegeneticshowpsychologycaninformgeneticsandviceversa