December 22, 2005

Skin colour and brain activity genetically linked?

East German geneticist Volkmar Weiss has just pointed out that the effect of the recently identified skin color gene SLC24A5, which makes the difference between the white race and other races (See here), is more than skin deep. SLC24A5 is also active in the brain (See here).

Given the statistical linkage between IQ and skin colour (See for instance the Table below), that should not really be too surprising but there are none so blind as those who will not see. The Table is from an article by Donald Templer and Hiroko Arikawa in the journal Intelligence.



The Table shows that high IQ populations have lighter skin, greater wealth and live in colder climates.

The full Templer and Arikawa paper can be accessed here

There are more details and commentary about the article from which the table above is taken here. And see here for more comments on Volkmar Weiss's observation. The paper about the genes of skin colour is linked and summarized here





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