Genome-wide association study of school grades identifies genetic overlap between language ability, psychopathology and creativity

Cognitive functions of individuals with psychiatric disorders differ from that of the general population. Such cognitive differences often manifest early in life as differential school performance and have a strong genetic basis. Here we measured genetic predictors of school performance in 30,982 individuals in English, Danish and mathematics via a genome-wide association study (GWAS) and studied their relationship with risk for six major psychiatric disorders. When decomposing the school performance into math and language-specific performances, we observed phenotypically and genetically a strong negative correlation between math performance and risk for most psychiatric disorders. But language performance correlated positively with risk for certain disorders, especially schizophrenia, which we replicate in an independent sample (n = 4547). We also found that the genetic variants relating to increased risk for schizophrenia and better language performance are overrepresented in individuals involved in creative professions (n = 2953) compared to the general population (n = 164,622). The findings together suggest that language ability, creativity and psychopathology might stem from overlapping genetic roots.

Automated summary

Individuals with psychiatric disorders show cognitive differences compared to the general population, which can be observed early in school performance and are genetically influenced. A genome-wide association study revealed a strong negative correlation between math performance and risk for most psychiatric disorders, while language performance correlated positively with risk for certain disorders, especially schizophrenia. Furthermore, genetic variants related to schizophrenia risk and better language performance are more common in individuals involved in creative professions compared to the general population. These findings suggest a potential genetic overlap between language ability, creativity, and psychopathology.