学习能力与学习障碍的遗传学： 英国的近期发展和中国的研究的可能方向

Genetics of Learning Abilities and Disabilities: Recent Developments from the UK and Possible Directions for Research in China

中国的行为遗传学诞生在遗传学突飞猛进的时代，令人振奋。作为一个新兴学科，中国的行为遗传学研究可以避免走前人的弯路，而成为领先而不是滞后的领域。以学习能力的研究为例，计量行为遗传学可以避免“性与养”（nature vs. nurture）的争论而直接研究一些遗传学与心理学里有意义的问题，包括正常与异常、稳定与变动、同质与异质的关系等问题。尤为重要的是超越“性与养”的争论而直接研究遗传对行为的影响。本文也扼要介绍了英国“双生子早期发展”项目的计量行为遗传学和“全基因组关联”对学习能力研究的结果。可以预计，飞速发展的遗传学发现将会持续一些时日，其发展将会对中国和世界的心理学产生更大的影响。

It is exciting to witness the birth of behavioral genetics in China at a time when the field of genetics is exploding with new discoveries. We begin by discussing the potential for Chinese researchers to sidestep the false starts of previous genetic research on behavior and to become leaders rather than followers in behavioral genetics research. Using learning abilities and disabilities as an example， the rest of the paper considers ways in which quantitative genetic research can go beyond the nature versus nurture question to ask more interesting questions about genetics and psychology. These include the relationship between the normal and abnormal， longitudinal analyses of stability and change， and multivariate analyses of heterogeneity and homogeneity. The most important way to go beyond the rudimentary question about nature versus nurture is to identify the genes responsible for genetic influence on behavior. We briefly describe our quantitative genetic findings and genome-wide association studies of learning ability from the UK Twins Early Development Study (TEDS). It seems a safe prediction that the fast pace of genetic discoveries will continue and will increasingly affect the field of psychology in China and the rest of the world.