Research Paper Volume 11, Issue 5 pp 1440—1456

Genetic variation underlying cognition and its relation with neurological outcomes and brain imaging

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Figure 2. Association of genetic variants for general cognitive function with (decline in) cognition and daily functioning, and educational attainment. Association between genetic variants and cognitive performance and daily functioning at one point in time, as well as years of education, adjusted for age and sex with and without adjustment for years of education (A), and change in cognitive performance and daily functioning over time (B), additionally adjusted for baseline measurement and time between baseline and follow-up measurement. Three polygenic scores are presented: a cognition polygenic score including all independent lead variants (N=170); a cognition polygenic score only including variants with a p>0.05 for the association with the developmental component of cognition, i.e. educational attainment and intracranial volume (N=36); and an educational attainment polygenic score, which contains the lead genetic variants for cognitive performance (N=170) but uses the weights for educational attainment. Larger blocks indicate higher t-values. Higher scores indicate better performance, except for the Stroop test, the Basic Activities of Daily Living and Instrumental Activities of Daily Living. Significance levels are indicated by asterisks: *p<0.05, nominally significant; **p<0.0038 (A) or p<0.0040 (B), adjusted for the number of independent traits as calculated through 10,000 permutations; ***p<2.2x10-5 (A; 0.0038/170) or p<2.4x10-5 (B; 0.0040/170), additionally adjusted for the number of genetic variants.