Multi-Trait Analysis of GWAS and Biological Insights Into Cognition: A Response to Hill (2018).

Twin Research and Human Genetics : the Official Journal of the International Society for Twin Studies
Max LamTodd Lencz

Abstract

Hill (Twin Research and Human Genetics, Vol. 21, 2018, 84-88) presented a critique of our recently published paper in Cell Reports entitled 'Large-Scale Cognitive GWAS Meta-Analysis Reveals Tissue-Specific Neural Expression and Potential Nootropic Drug Targets' (Lam et al., Cell Reports, Vol. 21, 2017, 2597-2613). Specifically, Hill offered several interrelated comments suggesting potential problems with our use of a new analytic method called Multi-Trait Analysis of GWAS (MTAG) (Turley et al., Nature Genetics, Vol. 50, 2018, 229-237). In this brief article, we respond to each of these concerns. Using empirical data, we conclude that our MTAG results do not suffer from 'inflation in the FDR [false discovery rate]', as suggested by Hill (Twin Research and Human Genetics, Vol. 21, 2018, 84-88), and are not 'more relevant to the genetic contributions to education than they are to the genetic contributions to intelligence'.

References

Jan 3, 1994·Healthcare Management Forum·J R Lave, P Jacobs
Jan 3, 2018·Nature Genetics·Patrick TurleyDaniel J Benjamin
Mar 20, 2018·Twin Research and Human Genetics : the Official Journal of the International Society for Twin Studies·W David Hill

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