Educational attainment-related loci identified by GWAS are associated with select personality traits and mathematics and language abilities

Abstract

A recent genome-wide association study of educational attainment identified three significant single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) (rs9320913, rs11584700, and rs4851266). In this study, we expanded this previous work by investigating behavioral correlates of these SNPs in a Han Chinese sample (rs9320913 was not available in our data and was thus replaced by rs12202969, which is in high linkage disequilibrium [i.e., correlations of alleles] with the former, r2=0.96 in Han Chinese population based on the 1000 Genomes Project). Association analysis for individual SNPs showed significant associations between rs4851266 and a measure of language ability (Chinese word recognition), and between rs12202969 and a personality trait (fear of negative evaluation) and a measure of mathematical ability (number paired-associates learning). A polygenic score based on these three SNPs was also significantly associated with the measures of mathematical and language abilities. Specifically, educationally advantaged alleles identified in the previous study were associated with less fear of negative evaluation and higher mathematical and language abilities in the current study. This exploratory study provides evidence of psychological mechanisms for the association between genes and educational attainment.