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An interdisciplinary team led by KU Leuven and Stanford has identified 76 overlapping genetic locations that shape both our face and brain. What the researchers did not find is evidence that this genetic overlap also translates into a person’s traits or risk of conditions such as Alzheimer’s. Their findings thereby debunk some stubborn pseudoscientific claims about what is written on our faces.
There had been indications for a genetic link between the shape of our face and that of our brain for some time, says Professor Peter Claes of the Laboratory for Image Processing in Genetics at KU Leuven. “But our knowledge of that link was based on research with model organisms and clinical knowledge of extremely rare conditions. We wanted to map the genetic link between the facial and brain shapes of individuals much more broadly, and that for common genetic variations in the larger non-clinical population. ”
Genetic Link Identified Between Face and Brain Shape by Hannah Joy on April 5, 2021 at 10:35 PM
About 76 overlapping genetic locations have been identified that shape both our face and brain, reveals an interdisciplinary team led by KU Leuven and Stanford.
What the researchers didn t find is evidence that this genetic overlap also predicts someone s behavioral-cognitive traits or risk of conditions such as Alzheimer s disease. This means that the findings help to debunk several persistent pseudoscientific claims about what our face reveals about us.
There were already indications of a genetic link between the shape of our face and that of our brain, says Professor Peter Claes from the Laboratory for Imaging Genetics at KU Leuven, who is the joint senior author of the study with Professor Joanna Wysocka from the Stanford University School of Medicine.
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An interdisciplinary team led by KU Leuven and Stanford has identified 76 overlapping genetic locations that shape both our face and our brain. What the researchers didn t find is evidence that this genetic overlap also predicts someone s behavioural-cognitive traits or risk of conditions such as Alzheimer s disease. This means that the findings help to debunk several persistent pseudoscientific claims about what our face reveals about us.
There were already indications of a genetic link between the shape of our face and that of our brain, says Professor Peter Claes from the Laboratory for Imaging Genetics at KU Leuven, who is the joint senior author of the study with Professor Joanna Wysocka from the Stanford University School of Medicine. But our knowledge on this link was based on model organism research and clinical knowledge of extremely rare conditions, Claes continues. We set out to map the genetic link between individuals face and brain shape much more broadly,
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