Herald Sun

November 8, 2001, Thursday
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 27

LENGTH: 174 words

HEADLINE: IQ no grey matter

BODY:
SCIENTISTS have published ground-breaking images of the brain that prove intelligence depends heavily on genes.

The images show the volume of grey matter in the front of the brain -- which relates to a person's IQ -- is determined by the genetic makeup of a person's parents. The discovery is likely to re-ignite the nature versus nurture argument in which some scientists claim a child's environment contributes relatively little to intelligence.

Researchers from the University of California in Los Angeles, led by Dr Paul Thompson, compared 20 pairs of twins, half of whom were identical and half fraternal.

Identical twins have the same genes, whereas fraternal or non-identical twins, like ordinary siblings, share about half.

Features which are the same in identical twins, but not in non-identical, are therefore likely to be governed by genetics.

"We were stunned to see that the amount of grey matter in frontal brain regions was strongly inherited and also predicted an individual's IQ score," Dr Thompson said.

LOAD-DATE: November 7, 2001