Intelligence is not only due to genetics

Human intelligence is a difficult concept to measure and difficult to identify. Most researchers today think that one's intelligence is a combination of the knowledge we learn, the skills, and the ability to comprehend and the ability to reason. This also means that our intellectual ability is formed and developed over time, not determined and unchanged since we were born.

According to Discovery , the basic foundation of intelligence is actually a combination of many factors. In addition to genetic factors, there are other factors that are as important as the foods we eat, the environment in which we live, that affect the intellectual ability of people.

Genetic factors

Researchers have spent more than a century figuring out how human intelligence depends on the genome that we inherited from our parents. And they discovered that the genome really has a significant influence on one's intelligence and IQ , however, the degree of influence is heterogeneous, ranging from about 40 to 80%. .

In addition, the structure of the brain and its ability to perform tasks also contribute to a person's intelligence level. By brain imaging, neurologists have found different points in the structure of the brains, especially the differences in the free ways in the forehead, which are the positive influences. / negative to one's intellectual ability. The performance of the grooves in this area correlates with the performance of the brain, as well as the information processing process. These are factors that affect IQ.

Early life nutrition

Will children be smarter if breast-fed?

According to a study conducted by Terried Moffit with colleagues at King's College (UK), only in children who inherited at least one version of the FADS2 version of C, is intelligence related to being fed with milk mother.

Ancient people have a saying that he ' eats anything ', and this is absolutely true for babies . The health and wisdom of a child depends entirely on the mother's diet during pregnancy. Diets in pregnancy and nutrition in early childhood are actually related to the structure of the brain, to behavior, and to the intellectual ability of the child.

The more nutrient-rich foods offered while in the womb as well as during the first week of birth, the greater the brain region involved in acquiring and memorizing. The nutrient-rich diet also has the same effect on children provided with polyunsaturated fatty acids (such as DHA) while still in the womb. If during pregnancy and lactation, mothers eat a lot of foods that contain these fatty acids, they will have more developed intelligence.

Feeding conditions

The fact that intelligence is more dependent on genetic factors or feeding conditions is still a controversial issue and more long-term research is needed. Genetic factors here are biological inheritance from parents; and conditions for nurturing are external factors that affect and affect a person in the development process. These factors include everything from parenting, parenting, how we are educated at home and at school, and the experiences we have in our lives.

To study the effect of feeding conditions, scientists often study twins that are separated and nurtured in two different environments. They argue that if intelligence depends only on genetic factors, then these separated twins must have the same IQ; However, the research results in many cases are not the same. Although the genome we inherited from our parents has a relative decision on intelligence, the quality of the education we receive as well as the resurrection experience can really make us smarter.

Order of birth

For more than a century, there has been a lot of research on how the birth order affects human intellect, but so far scientists have not had a definite answer. Many people believe that the first children in the family will be smarter than their siblings. In fact, well-known and successful figures such as astronauts, US presidents, or Nobel laureates are mostly the oldest children in the family. People also give quite reasonable reasons to explain this result, that is the first child or the first child in the family often receives more attention and care.

However, recent studies show that birth order is not a factor affecting intellectual ability (learning ability, comprehension, and reasoning) but it only affects only IQ IQ tests are a method of measuring our penchant for thinking and comparing results with others. Accordingly, usually the first child usually has an IQ score of 3 points higher than his younger brother.

Living environment

In addition to the above genetic and nutritional factors, our living environment also affects intellectual ability. The agents in daily life such as the diet, the chemicals we touch every day, or even the neighborhood we live in (whether it is safe or not) also have a certain influence on the expression of genes as well as brain activity.

For example, exposure to toxins in cigarette smoke, from the stage of the fetus and around the time of birth and schooling, has been shown to impair intellectual ability, depletion. IQ reduction.