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Intelligence-associated Polygenic Scores Predict g, Independent of Ancestry, Parental Educational Levels, and Color among Hispanics in comparison to European, European- African, and African Americans

Bryan J. Pesta, John G. R. Fuerst, Davide Piffer, Emil O. W. Kirkegaard
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.09.24.312074
Bryan J. Pesta
1Department of Management, Cleveland State University, Cleveland, OH 44115, USA
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  • For correspondence: j.g.fuerst@vikes.csuohio.edu
John G. R. Fuerst
2Cleveland State University, Cleveland, OH 44115, USA
3Ulster Institute for Social Research, London NW26 9LQ, UK
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  • For correspondence: j.g.fuerst@vikes.csuohio.edu
Davide Piffer
3Ulster Institute for Social Research, London NW26 9LQ, UK
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Emil O. W. Kirkegaard
3Ulster Institute for Social Research, London NW26 9LQ, UK
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Abstract

Polygenic scores for educational attainment and intelligence (eduPGS), genetic ancestry, and cognitive ability have been found to be inter-correlated in some admixed American populations. We argue that this could either be due to causally-relevant genetic differences between ancestral groups or be due to population stratification-related confounding. Moreover, we argue that it is important to determine which scenario is the case so to better assess the validity of eduPGS. We investigate the confounding vs. causal concern by examining, in detail, the relation between eduPGS, ancestry, and general cognitive ability in East Coast Hispanic and non-Hispanic samples. European ancestry was correlated with g in the admixed Hispanic (r = .30, N = 506), European-African (r = .26, N = 228), and African (r = .084, N = 2,179) American samples. Among Hispanics and the combined sample, these associations were robust to controls for racial / ethnic self-identification, genetically predicted color, and parental education. Additionally, eduPGS predicted g among Hispanics (B = 0.175, N = 506) and all other groups (European: B = 0.230, N = 4914; European-African: B = 0.215, N = 228; African: B = 0.126, N = 2179) with controls for ancestry. Path analyses revealed that eduPGS, but not color, partially statistically explained the association between g and European ancestry among both Hispanics and the combined sample. Of additional note, we were unable to account for eduPGS differences between ancestral populations using common tests for ascertainment bias and confounding related to population stratification. Overall, our results suggest that eduPGS derived from European samples can be used to predict g in American populations. However, owing to the uncertain cause of the differences in eduPGS, it is not yet clear how the effect of ancestry should be handled. We argue that more research is needed to determine the source of the relation between eduPGS, genetic ancestry, and cognitive ability.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

Footnotes

  • This version corrects typos.

  • https://osf.io/exq6h/?view_only=f7ad5031bbd642afabf4cb2d19c18f81

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.
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Intelligence-associated Polygenic Scores Predict g, Independent of Ancestry, Parental Educational Levels, and Color among Hispanics in comparison to European, European- African, and African Americans
Bryan J. Pesta, John G. R. Fuerst, Davide Piffer, Emil O. W. Kirkegaard
bioRxiv 2020.09.24.312074; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.09.24.312074
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Intelligence-associated Polygenic Scores Predict g, Independent of Ancestry, Parental Educational Levels, and Color among Hispanics in comparison to European, European- African, and African Americans
Bryan J. Pesta, John G. R. Fuerst, Davide Piffer, Emil O. W. Kirkegaard
bioRxiv 2020.09.24.312074; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.09.24.312074

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