What method of research would you find useful to determine if inheritance determines intelligence?

What method of research would you find useful to determine if inheritance (genes) determines intelligence more than environment (experience/surroundings).

What method of research would you find useful to determine if inheritance determines intelligence?
The real question should be, 'how to quantify intelligence?', because the term itself (intelligence) is generalized, and lends itself to misinterpretation, since it may be applied differently in various context.





Good luck with your search.
Reply:Bear in mind that I am only dabbling, and as a result I am operating from a place of ignorance. It is entirely possible that science/medicine have either already proven what I propose needs to be proven or else have the ability to prove it if such research were to be conducted. ( Also, I don't know if you're looking for an idea for scientific research on a major scale or if you're just looking for library research. First the scientific research ideas, then the library research ideas.)





So, having written my disclaimer....





If it were possible to scan the brains of thousands of newborn infants to look for differences in areas of the brain responsible for different tasks it would either show that the as long as there has been no brain damage newborns' brains may all be pretty much alike, all be very different, or be pretty much alike but with minor differences. There would, of course, be the issue of prenatal environment; but if enough newborns' brains could be scanned it may be possible to account for any differences in prenatal environment or even associate those differences with some genetic factor in either the mother or the fetus.





I am not familiar enough with the equipment used for scanning or things that could be done to get a newborn's brain to "light up" on the image; so I don't even know if this starting point to research is even possible at this time. (Of course, using scanning equipment on brand new brains may have risks.)





I have recently read on a medical/scientific site that newborns come equipped with a basic set of connections wired in their brains. It was stated, though, that the development of the infant's/toddler's brain is heavily affected by nurturing. It was stated that while every brain starts out with a basic set of connections (which were compared to the number of entries in a phone book) it is the nurturing that determines how many and which additional connections get "wired in" (and those were compared to the actual information in the phone book). It was stated that it is in the first two or three years of life that this opportunity to establish connects exists, and it was said that if a baby is not made to feel secure it is even possible that his brain will get wired in a way that will, for the rest of his life, mean he responds to stress too dramatically and could affect his body's immune system response as well. (http://www.educarer.com/brain.htm)





Since the effect of nurturing during the first few years is already understood to be substantial, the question with regard to establishing any degree of effects on intelligence by genetics would have to be addressed at the time of birth.





I have no way to know if science/medicine already knows how similar or different the brains of newborns are because I am operating from a non-professional's guesses and assumptions.





Either in conjunction with the scanning of newborns' brains or instead of it, I would assume there may be some way to apply a mathematical formula to differences in metabollic factors which would establish subtle differences between brains and/or which may allow scientists to know about any differences by applying the formula to each infant. It may be that there are only a limited number of different types of brains, or it may be that a simple formula could identify that causes of any differences between brains.





Something I wonder is whether there may be subtle differences in the heartbeats of newborns, which might translate into a way of measuring, say, degrees of "feminine-leaning" brain development versus degrees of "masculine-leaning" brain development. I have heard there is an old wives tale that baby girls have faster heartbeats, and when my doctor's nurse told me she thought I'd have a girl that's what happened. I wonder if this is a way to detect the most subtle differences and draw a correlation between each "degree" of difference and possible genetic "pre-programming toward different blueprints for brain development after the basics of being human and before the changes from nurturing.





Assuming there is a way to check a substantial number of newborn brains to establish any differences and similarities, this part of the research would establish a base on which to conduct any additional research on the development of intelligence during the first few years of life and within the context of the different nurturing environments.





The material from which I got some of the above information suggests that genetics play a role in the most basic wiring of the brain. What that particular work doesn't state is whether by "genetics" it means specific, individual, DNA or whether it just means that all humans get a certain "blend" in genetic programming.





My point is that as far as I know right now it would seem the only way to establish the degree to which heredity influences intelligence would be to establish an indepth picture of exactly what degrees of differences may exist between newborns' brains.





It could be that such information on newborns' brains may actually show that heredity has a minor role in intelligence or that it has a major role or something inbetween. Another question would be, however, even if there are substantial differences in the pre-set programming of brain development among newborns; in view of the fact that infants' brains are known to recover well from injury and in view of the fact that, in general, brains have a way of creating new pathways, isn't it possible that the newborn with a pre-programmed leaning toward a certain type of brain development could have his brain substantially altered and "corrected" with the right nurturing?





As it is now, and to the best of my understanding, science already knows that nurturing plays a very substantial role in the development of a baby's brain. The question is simply how much, if any, influence does genetics have over intelligence.





As the parent of one adopted child (from infancy) and two biological children, and as someone who has other adopted people in exended family, I am convinced (anecdotal though it may be) that if I were handed a newborn tomorrow (from anywhere or anyone but without brain damage) I could raise that child to be every bit as intelligent as my biological children are.





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If a person were able to find a resource with enough information about, say, the development of the limbic system, the role of the hippocampus in developing brains, the role of the amygdala, the development of the part of the brain responsible for good memory, and the level of immaturity that is associated with a high degree of mimicking behavior (the way young children mimick and learn) as compared with any decrease in mimicking behavior that may be associated with a certain part or parts of the brain; it would probably be possible to get a good grasp of the influence of environment on intelligence. It may even be possible to rule out some of the role of heridity by putting the above puzzle pieces together. It would probably also be important to get information about the things that alter certain combinations of hormones or other "brain chemicals".





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Well.....that's all I can come up :) Its been kind of fun having the chance to get some ideas about one of my "causes" down in writing.
Reply:Well, you could always start by taking the baby of a genious and putting it with your average family in a poor neighborhood and see how he turns out when he gets older.





I don't think the two are related myself.





Someone can be very intelligent and still not do a darned thing with their life, by choice, not by upbringing. I will admit though, situations may "influence" the outcome, but not determine it.
Reply:I would say using standardized testing such as an IQ test in groups of people of different genes. See if the kids, mom, dad, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc have similar scores.

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