Better understanding how the truffles reproduce has major implications for farmers, chefs, and foodies enamored with the expensive, pungent fungus.
Image courtesy of Shutterstock/Vitalina Rybakova.
New Research In
Physical Sciences
Featured Portals
Articles by Topic
Biological Sciences
Featured Portals
Articles by Topic
Edited by Nancy G. Kanwisher, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, and approved January 5, 2010 (received for review November 15, 2009)
Abstract
Compared with notable successes in the genetics of basic sensory transduction, progress on the genetics of higher level perception and cognition has been limited. We propose that investigating specific cognitive abilities with well-defined neural substrates, such as face recognition, may yield additional insights. In a twin study of face recognition, we found that the correlation of scores between monozygotic twins (0.70) was more than double the dizygotic twin correlation (0.29), evidence for a high genetic contribution to face recognition ability. Low correlations between face recognition scores and visual and verbal recognition scores indicate that both face recognition ability itself and its genetic basis are largely attributable to face-specific mechanisms. The present results therefore identify an unusual phenomenon: a highly specific cognitive ability that is highly heritable. Our results establish a clear genetic basis for face recognition, opening this intensively studied and socially advantageous cognitive trait to genetic investigation.
Footnotes
- 1To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: jwilmer{at}wellesley.edu.
Author contributions: J.B.W., L.G., K.N., and B.D. designed research; J.B.W., L.G., C.F.C., and M.W. performed research; J.B.W., L.G., C.F.C., and G.C. contributed new reagents/analytic tools; J.B.W. and E.L. analyzed data; J.B.W. and B.D. wrote the paper with input from L.G., C.F.C. and K.N.; L.G. developed online versions of tests, recruited non-twin participants, and conducted the alternate-forms and FFR studies; C.F.C. developed the verbal paired-associates memory test and conducted the test-retest study; and G.C. developed the abstract art memory test.
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
This article is a PNAS Direct Submission.
This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/0913053107/DCSupplemental.
Human face recognition ability is specific and highly heritable
More Articles of This Classification
Biological Sciences
Related Content
Cited by...
- Heritable aspects of biological motion perception and its covariation with autistic traits
- Typical and Atypical Development of Functional Connectivity in the Face Network
- Genetic specificity of face recognition
- Common polymorphism in the oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR) is associated with human social recognition skills
- A new theoretical approach to improving face recognition in disorders of central vision: Face caricaturing
- Experience moderates overlap between object and face recognition, suggesting a common ability
- The composite effect for inverted faces is reliable at large sample sizes and requires the basic face configuration
- Individual variation in cognitive performance: developmental and evolutionary perspectives
- Number sense across the lifespan as revealed by a massive Internet-based sample
- Do Patients with Glaucoma Have Difficulty Recognizing Faces?
- Asymmetrical interactions in the perception of face identity and emotional expression are not unique to the primate visual system
- Functional specificity in the human brain: A window into the functional architecture of the mind
- Is there significant nonfamilial environmental influence on human face recognition?
- Response to Thomas: Is human face recognition ability entirely genetic?
- Escaping Attention
- A strong role for nature in face recognition
Similar Articles
You May Also be Interested in
PNAS QnAs with NAS foreign associate and metabolic engineer Sang Yup Lee
Researchers report a species of early bird with a combination of bird-like and dinosaur-like bone morphologies, and the structure of the bird’s shoulder girdle highlights the role of developmental plasticity in the early evolution of birds, according to the authors.
A study suggests that the herbicide glyphosate disrupts bee gut microbiota, increasing bees’ susceptibility to pathogens, and that glyphosate’s effects may contribute to the largely unexplained increase in honey bee colony mortality.
Image courtesy of Vivian Abagiu (The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX).
A study finds that a fragment of an ancient retrovirus, integrated in human ancestors before the emergence of Neanderthals, is found more frequently in people who contracted HIV and hepatitis C through intravenous drug use, compared with control populations.
Image courtesty of Pixabay/typographyimages.
