Abstract
The limited research exploring genetic and environmental influences on inhibitory control (IC) in preschoolers has relied on parent ratings or simple delay tasks and has produced mixed results. The present study uses a cognitively-challenging Flanker task to examine genetic and environmental contributions to the development of early IC in a longitudinal sample of 310 same-sex twin pairs (123 MZ; 187 DZ; 51% female) assessed at ages 3, 4 and 5 years. IC was significantly heritable at each age (a2: age 3 = .36; age 4 = .36; age 5 = .35). Stability was entirely accounted for by genetic influences, and change was explained by genetic and nonshared environmental factors. No significant shared environmental influences were observed.
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Data Availability
The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Notes
We also considered an ADE model because DZ correlations were less than half of the MZ correlation. In the full ADE model, A and D were nonsignificant at all ages. Again, the AE model with no E covariance was the best-fitting reduced model (see Table S4).
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The Boston University Twin Project (BUTP-II) is supported by Grant R01 HD068435 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) to Dr. Saudino.
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KJS and JMG designed the study and collected all data. IH and KJS conceptualized the research question and performed the analyses. All authors discussed the results and contributed to the final manuscript.
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Hung, IT., Ganiban, J.M. & Saudino, K.J. Using the Flanker Task to Examine Genetic and Environmental Contributions in Inhibitory Control Across the Preschool Period. Behav Genet 53, 132–142 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10519-022-10129-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10519-022-10129-4