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Intellectual Development of Twins — Comparison with Singletons

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2014

Ntinos C. Myrianthopoulos ,
Paul L. Nichols  and
Sarah H. Broman
Ntinos C. Myrianthopoulos*
Affiliation:
National Institute of Neurological and Communicative Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA
Paul L. Nichols
Affiliation:
National Institute of Neurological and Communicative Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA
Sarah H. Broman
Affiliation:
National Institute of Neurological and Communicative Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA
*
NINCDS, NIH, Bethesda, Maryland 20014, USA

Abstract

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Analysis of mental and motor tests scores and intelligence test performance of twins born in the Collaborative Perinatal Project shows that twins perform more poorly than singletons from the same population and that the differences are greater in Negroes than in whites. The poor performance of twins relative to that of singletons is of complex etiology. It is partly due to poor prenatal environment, for twins brought up as singletons perform at the intelligence level of twins and not of singletons. It may also be partly due to the higher incidence of congenital malformations in twins, especially those of the central nervous system. But the performance of twins, relative to that of singletons, tends to improve as they get older, at least from 4 to 7 years, suggesting that prematurity is also a contributing factor, whose detrimental effects may be reversible.

Type
9. Science for Twins/Twins for Science
Information
Acta geneticae medicae et gemellologiae: twin research , Volume 25 , Issue 1 , January 1976 , pp. 376 - 380
Copyright
Copyright © The International Society for Twin Studies 1976

References

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