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Genetic Covariation Underlying Reading, Language and Related Measures in a Sample Selected for Specific Language Impairment

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Abstract

Specific language impairment is a developmental language disorder characterized by failure to develop language normally in the absence of a specific cause. Previous twin studies have documented the heritability of reading and language measures as well as the genetic correlation between those measures. This paper presents results from an alternative to the classical twin designs by estimating heritability from extended pedigrees. These pedigrees were previously studied as part of series of molecular genetic studies of specific language impairment where the strongest genetic findings were with reading phenotypes rather than language despite selecting pedigrees based on language impairments. To explore the relationship between reading and language in these pedigrees, variance components estimates of heritability of reading and language measures were conducted showing general agreement with the twin literature, as were genetics correlations between reading and language. Phonological short-term memory, phonological awareness and auditory processing were evaluated as candidate mediators of the reading-language genetic correlations. Only phonological awareness showed significant genetic correlations with all reading measures and several language measures while phonological short-term memory and auditory processing did not.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the participating families whose time and cooperation made this work possible; T Realpe-Bonilla, J Nawyn, L Hirsch for family testing and database management; L Almasy for her helpful comments on the use of SOLAR for analysis. Family collection was supported by the National Institute on Deafness and other Communication Disorders R01 DC01654 (PT and LMB) and ongoing work is funded by R01 DC009453 (CWB, SAP and LMB). Paula Tallal is a founder of the Scientific Learning Corporation (http:\\WWW.SCIENTIFICLEARNING.COM).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Human Development and Family Science, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA

    Jessica Logan & Stephen A. Petrill

  2. The Battelle Center for Mathematical Medicine, The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and Department of Pediatrics, The Ohio State University, JW3926, 700 Children’s Drive, Columbus, OH, 43205, USA

    Stephen A. Petrill, Liping Hou & Christopher W. Bartlett

  3. Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience, Rutgers University, Newark, NJ, USA

    Judy Flax & Paula Tallal

  4. Department of Genetics, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, USA

    Judy Flax & Linda M. Brzustowicz

  5. School of Teaching and Learning, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA

    Laura M. Justice

  6. Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, and Schizophrenia Research Program, Queen Street Division, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Anne S. Bassett

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  1. Jessica Logan
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  2. Stephen A. Petrill
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  3. Judy Flax
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Correspondence to Christopher W. Bartlett.

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Edited by Danielle Posthuma.

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Logan, J., Petrill, S.A., Flax, J. et al. Genetic Covariation Underlying Reading, Language and Related Measures in a Sample Selected for Specific Language Impairment. Behav Genet 41, 651–659 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10519-010-9435-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10519-010-9435-0

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