A new study has set up that genetic factors play a significant role in ascertain the cognitive abilities of Pan troglodytes . By immix cognitive functioning tests with transmitted analysis , researchers fromGeorgia State Universitydiscovered that some , but not all , cognitive trait were heritable in chimpanzee . In other lyric , like in human beings , cognitive ability could be go across from parents to offspring . The study has been print inCurrent Biology .
The role of genetics in define human word was a matter of long - stand debate in the past tense . While it is have a go at it that intelligence can bemodifiedby social and environmental factors such as education and socioeconomic status , it is also profusely clear that it is heritable , i.e. can be give from parent to child .
Our understanding of how cistron vs environmental ingredient can shape knowledge in non - human animals , peculiarly nonhuman archpriest , has been importantly less clear . For many years it wasbelievedthat the latter was largely responsible for cognitive traits , but few survey actually look into the part of genetics .
In rescript to fill in gap in this poorly understood area , research worker arrange out toexaminewhether cognitive performance is inheritable in chimpanzees . 99 chimpanzee between the ages of 9- 54 were present with 13 different tasks designed to test various cognitive abilities . They then combined this data with genetic analytic thinking to see whether the degree of relatedness between the Pan troglodytes was linked to job operation .
The researchers discovered that some , but not all , cognitive trait could be inherit in chimpanzees . This is in contrast to earlier ideas that environmental factors and experience largely determine task public presentation . “ In our shell , at least , it suggests that strictly environmental explanations do n’t really seem to tell the whole story , ” lead-in author William Hopkins said in anews - release . “ Genes weigh as well . ”
Furthermore , the observed power across this large range of tasks seemed to suggest that Pan troglodytes intelligence is reminiscent of the bodily structure of human intelligence , Hopkins contribute .
While much more enquiry needs to be carried out in this field , the study certainly provides a fundament for further , more elaborate work . The researchers would therefore like to continue this work by looking at larger samples and investigate which especial genes are involved in determining cognitive abilities in chimpanzees .
