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Genetic Influences on Five Measures of Processing Speed and Their Covariation with General Cognitive Ability in the Elderly: The Older Australian Twins Study

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Abstract

Processing speed (PS) is one of the basic elements of cognitive functions and has been regarded as a “common mechanism” which mediates general cognitive decline in aging. The present study of Australian twins (117 monozygotic pairs, 98 dizygotic pairs, and 42 single twins aged 65 years and over), estimated the genetic influences in five measures of PS: Digit Symbol Coding (DS), Trail Making Test A (TMTA), Stroop color naming and word reading (Stroop), Simple Reaction Time (SRT) and Complex Reaction Time (CRT); and their covariation with general cognitive ability (GCA): reasoning, problem-solving, and memory. Additive genetic factors explained 62% of the variance in DS, 42% in TMTA, 57% in Stroop, and 48% and 35% in SRT and CRT, respectively. Quantitative genetic modeling showed that all of the covariation between the five PS measures and GCA could be explained by one common genetic factor, while the covariation between the PS measures was partly explained by non-shared environmental as well as genetic influences. The genetic correlation among the PS measures was strongest for DS and TMTA, and between the PS measures and GCA was strongest for DS. These findings suggest that the different PS measures, as well as GCA were to a large extent influenced by the same set of genes and that the relationship between PS and GCA is entirely due to shared-genetic influences.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the National Health and Medical Research Council (ID 401162), and was facilitated with access to the Australian Twin Registry, a national research resource supported by an Enabling Grant (ID 310667) from the National Health & Medical Research Council, and administered by The University of Melbourne. We thank the OATS research team in New South Wales (Pamela Azar, John Crawford, Fiona Kumfor, Alissa Nichles, Alison Walker), Queensland (Harry Beeby, Anthony Caracella, Natalie Garden, Anjali Henders, Clare Redfern, Amanda Toivanen), and Victoria (Nicholas Cortes, Christel Lemmon, Simone Mangelsdorf, Gihan de Mel, Tabaitha Nash, Stacey Walker) for their contributions to this study. Most of all, we thank the twins and their families for their participation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Brain and Aging Research Program, School of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    Teresa Lee, Julian N. Trollor, Andrea Lammel & Perminder S. Sachdev

  2. Neuropsychiatric Institute, Euroa Centre, Prince of Wales Hospital, Randwick, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    Teresa Lee & Perminder S. Sachdev

  3. Genetic Epidemiology Laboratory, Queensland Institute of Medical Research, Brisbane, QLD, Australia

    Miriam A. Mosing, Nicholas G. Martin & Margaret J. Wright

  4. School of Psychology, University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia

    Miriam A. Mosing, Julie D. Henry, Nicholas G. Martin & Margaret J. Wright

  5. Intellectual Disability Mental Health, School of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    Julian N. Trollor

  6. National Aging Research Institute, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

    David Ames

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  1. Teresa Lee
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Lee, T., Mosing, M.A., Henry, J.D. et al. Genetic Influences on Five Measures of Processing Speed and Their Covariation with General Cognitive Ability in the Elderly: The Older Australian Twins Study. Behav Genet 42, 96–106 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10519-011-9474-1

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