No, you did not inherit your intelligence from your mother’s genes

The premise of [a post from Second Nexus is] that science has traced “intelligence genes” to the X chromosome and that: “children are more likely to inherit intelligence from their mothers because intelligence genes are located on the X chromosomes (and mothers have two).”

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Whatever is on the X can pass from mother to child or father to (usually) daughter, but the two X chromosomes the mother has aren’t the same and don’t at all automatically double the odds of inheriting a specific variant.

But there’s more…The doubled “gene dosage” for people with two (or more) X chromosomes is adjusted downward in a clever way: each cell turns off most of one X or the other. So inheriting an X-linked gene variant isn’t a guarantee that it will even be used because some cells might just shut it down.

Related on the SLP

Y-chromosome not going extinct, but losing it may be risk factor for Alzheimer disease Y chromosome here to stay; ‘Death of Men’ has been greatly exaggerated

The heated debate over trans athletes in the WNBA

Viewpoint: Women, depression and empathy: Explaining the gender gap in views about child-murderer Lindsay Clancy

Outing students: California court says schools need not notify parents of their child’s gender identity—unless they ask

Showing Slide 1 of 4

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So let’s get this out of the way: Intelligence is complicated…It’s layer upon layer upon layer of interacting pieces. So no. Not just your mother. Not just the X chromosome. Not even just genes.

The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion, and analysis. Read full, original post: No, Research Has Not Established That You Inherited Your Intelligence From Your Mother