Edited by Nancy G. Kanwisher, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, and approved January 5, 2010 (received for review November 15, 2009)
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.
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.
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