Where Does Intelligence Come From?
Rosemary Esmay
I'm bored so I want to discuss my favorite subject: genetics. Did you know that human intelligence is a result of a gene carried on the X chromosome?
Men possess a mixture of X & Y chromosomes as the 23rd pair (sex chromosomes) whereas women have a pair of XX chromosomes. This indicates that when a man inherits intelligence, if his mother passes this on from his grandmother then he is likely to have the grandmother's intelligence gene. Why granny and not momma?
Well, the simple answer is that mommy may not have the phenotype (expression of a specific trait) for her mother because she is also carrying another X chromosome (from daddy) and that X can positively or negatively affect the gene inherited from her mother.
Men have a slightly higher chance of having intelligences from the extremes of the bell curve because they only inherit one X chromosome. This is why more men have very high and very low I.Q's compared to women but more women outperform men at the mid-range.
So, if you (men) want to make sure you have smart boys, make sure your wife's momma is smart (Dean, you are a lucky man indeed!). If you (men) are a dope, your son has a chance but your daughter is screwed.
Just another reason to marry a smart woman! If you marry a twit because she's hot and you have a passel of dumb kids, don't say I didn't warn you...
[Footnote: Girls, this doesn't let you off the hook. If you marry or get knocked up by a dumb jock, your poor daughter's dimwittedness is TOTALLY YOUR FAULT]
But they also said that exposing your children to different educational opportunities also makes them smarter. For example, if you teach your child a foreign language as a toddler, that will open up new areas of his brain and actually make him more intelligent, not simply give him new information.
How dare you discuss intelligence as if it were anything but a social construct? How dare you impute that there's a single, measurable thing like intelligence? How dare you support the discredited, racist notion of "I.Q." anywhere outside its sole approved use (i.e., belittling Republican Presidential candidates)? How dare you ignore multiple intelligences? How dare you suggest that there might be a genetic factor to intelligence? How dare you ignore female ways of knowing?
(Come on, somebody give me some help here. I'm running out of reactionary cliches for silencing meaningful discussions of intelligence.)
I just thought I'd get all of the usual responses out of the way. Now that they've been said, we can safely ignore them and say: great post!
BK
1.5 points of IQ? That's a difference that's in the noise. You'd never, in real life, be able to tell the difference between someone with an IQ of 100 and someone else with an IQ 101.5.
I apologize in advance for this, but you are wrong. I think you are radically oversimplifying things here. "Intelligence" (or what we'd call intelligence), is really a series of behaviors. (There are different kinds of "intelligence:" numerical, spacial, interpersonal, etc. etc.) Behaviors rarely, if ever, are traceable to a single gene. (And don't even get me started on the whole nature vs. nurture can of worms.)
All else equal, it's not just the X chromosone that makes for intelligence (though from my research on this cool websiste called OMIM (Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man) it seems that a good number of really severe forms of retardation come from bad X Chromosones.) I've also found various sites listing important intelligence-related genes on chromosome 6 (IGF2R, some alleles have greater intelligence), chromosomes 2,6, and 15 (DYX genes, related to dyslexia), , and chromosome 1 (possibly related to schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.)
And of course, you can still have the best X Chromosone in the world, but a single trisomy undoes everything.
So I think the most that can be said is that a good X Chromosome is a necessary, but not a sufficient, condition to be a smarty-pants.
So I guess watching out for dimwits is good advice for both sexes. But I highly doubt that anyone will listen. (At least, that may explain why I have been batting .000 for the last few years.)
Did you note anywhere that a Y chromosome does anything for intelligence? If not, then I am correct from a purely scientific standpoint.
Intelligence is passed via the X. I didn't say anything about abnormalities and the like but even those all come from an X as opposed to a Y.
1. Ignorace is curable, wanton stupidity is not.
2. You only get out of the mix what you put into it. (Don't expect JBWeld when you're using Silly Putty!)
Intelligence is not just a number that is measureable with mathmatical equasions. However, those born 'smart' when their entire families are bone-jarringly stupid are the very, very rare exception. You can't make a good stew with rocks...
Be careful what you wish for.:)
While I think there might be a case for capacity coming from the mother's side, I'd have to think that the other factors can come from anywhere. Otherwise I am either really lucky, or a good faker.
dale
If money grew on trees, we'd all laze around in the shade of the branches waiting for the greenbacks to drop in our laps.
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI