X chromosome big factor in IQ

IF you consider yourself a pretty smart cookie, you might want to pick up the phone and say thanks to your mum.

According to the website Psychology Spot, mums are mainly responsible for transmitting the intelligence genes on to their children.

We know that intelligence has a hereditary component, but until a few years ago we thought that much of it depended on the father as well as on the mother.

“However, several studies revealed that children are more likely to inherit intelligence from the mother, because intelligence genes are located on chromosome X,” wrote psychologist and article author Jennifer Delgado. THE X FACTOR So what’s so special about chromosome X?

Previous studies have shown most of a child’s intelligence depends on the X chromosome. And, as the article points out, “since women have two X chromosomes, they are twice as likely to transmit characteristics related to intelligence”.

Furthermore, researchers at the University of Ulm, Germany recently studied the genes involved in brain damage and found that many of these were found in the chromosome X. THE IQ TEST Another study Delgado refers to is a longitudinal analysis which was conducted in Glasgow, Scotland.

“In this study, 12,686 young people aged 14-22 years were interviewed every year since 1994,” she wrote.

“The researchers took into account several factors, from skin-colour and education to socio-economic status.

“They found that the best predictor of intelligence was the IQ of the mother.

“In fact, the young people’s IQ varied only an average of 15 points from that of their mothers.” IT’S NOT ONLY GENETICS It’s not all down to chromosomes and biology, though.

Delgado also pointed to numerous studies which focus on the role a mother plays in a child’s intellectual development “through physical and emotional contact”.

“In fact, some studies suggest that a secure bond is intimately tied to intelligence.”

Certainly the researchers at the University of Washington seem to think so.

In their study, they revealed for the first time that a secure bond and the love of the mother are crucial for brain growth.

The researchers analysed mums and their children for seven years. At the end, when the children were 13, researchers discovered those who were emotionally supported and had their intellectual and emotional needs met actually had a larger hippocampus (by 10 per cent) than those whose mothers were emotionally distant.

But Delgado says dads are still important.

“This not to say that the relationship with the father should not be as fully developed, just that because of our social structure, including some of the gender stereotypes that still remain, it is usually the mother that spends the most time with small children,” she wrote.