Schubert Anna-Lena, Hagemann Dirk
Institute of Psychology, Heidelberg University, Hauptstr. 47-51, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany.
J Intell. 2020 Jul 20;8(3):29. doi: 10.3390/jintelligence8030029.
Geary (2018, 2019) suggested that heritable and environmentally caused differences in mitochondrial functioning affect the integrity and efficiency of neurons and supporting glia cells and may thus contribute to individual differences in higher-order cognitive functioning and physical health. In our comment, we want to pose three questions aimed at different aspects of Geary's theory that critically evaluate his theory in the light of evidence from neurocognitive, cognitive enhancement, and behavioral genetics research. We question (1) if Geary's theory explains why certain cognitive processes show a stronger age-related decline than others; (2) if intervention studies in healthy younger adults support the claim that variation in mitochondrial functioning underlies variation in human intelligence; and (3) if predictions arising from the matrilineal heredity of mitochondrial DNA are supported by behavioral genetics research. We come to the conclusion that there are likely many more biological and social factors contributing to variation in human intelligence than mitochondrial functioning.
吉尔里（2018年、2019年）提出，线粒体功能在遗传和环境因素作用下产生的差异会影响神经元和支持性神经胶质细胞的完整性和效率，进而可能导致高阶认知功能和身体健康方面的个体差异。在我们的评论中，我们想提出三个问题，针对吉尔里理论的不同方面，依据神经认知、认知增强和行为遗传学研究的证据对其理论进行批判性评估。我们质疑：（1）吉尔里的理论能否解释为何某些认知过程比其他认知过程表现出更强的与年龄相关的衰退；（2）针对健康年轻成年人的干预研究是否支持线粒体功能的差异是人类智力差异基础这一说法；（3）线粒体DNA母系遗传所产生的预测是否得到行为遗传学研究的支持。我们得出的结论是，除了线粒体功能外，可能还有更多的生物和社会因素导致人类智力的差异。
