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Eric Turkheimer

@ent3c.bsky.social

4.8K followers 1K following 2.2K posts

Behavior genetics, clinical psychology, Mets. Occasional politics. Substack (free): https://ericturkheimer.substack.com/ Book Is Out! Understanding the Nature-Nurture Debate https://shorturl.at/Ce2hf Electronic Version: https://shorturl.at/Fq2jv

ericturkheimer.substack.com

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Eric Turkheimer @ent3c.bsky.social · 1h

Something happened to the link in my post. Here is the link to, "The Hard Question in Psychiatric Nosology." ericturkheimer.substack.com/p/the-hard-q...

The Hard Question in Psychiatric Nosology

Reprinted by the author from: Turkheimer, E. (2017). The hard question in psychiatric nosology. Philosophical Issues in Psychiatry IV: Psychiatric Nosology, 27-44.

ericturkheimer.substack.com

Eric Turkheimer @ent3c.bsky.social · 1h

Crud what happened to the link? ericturkheimer.substack.com/p/the-hard-q...

The Hard Question in Psychiatric Nosology

Reprinted by the author from: Turkheimer, E. (2017). The hard question in psychiatric nosology. Philosophical Issues in Psychiatry IV: Psychiatric Nosology, 27-44.

ericturkheimer.substack.com

Eric Turkheimer @ent3c.bsky.social · 2h

I argue that the important question is not, as commonly assumed, about categorical vs dimensional systems, but rather (agreeing with Meehl) about whether observable surface structure is a reflection of low-level causal mechanisms. Disagreeing with Meehl, I conclude that the answer is usually no. /2

Eric Turkheimer @ent3c.bsky.social · 2h

Haven't posted much lately-- busy. One of my Substack projects is republishing my chapters from the Kendler and Parnas series on the philosophy of psychiatry. The books are expensive and hard to find. This is, "The Hard Question in Psychiatric Nosology." /1 @awaisaftab.bsky.social

Eric Turkheimer @ent3c.bsky.social · 1d

After several recent visits to extraordinarily busy hospitals and clinics (I am fine), my conclusion is that on the list of what is keeping the economy going, #1 may be AI, but #2 is keeping baby boomers alive.

Eric Turkheimer @ent3c.bsky.social · 4d

The first song on Taylor Swift's album is obviously evoking Shakespeare, with some mentions of Dylan. But the real (unlikely, I know) reference is to Robert Hunter: You may meet the fate of Ophelia, sleeping and perchance to dream. /
Honest to the point of recklessness, self-centered in the extreme.

Eric Turkheimer @ent3c.bsky.social · 5d

The Saturday morning cartoon animation, the porn movie music, the idiotic quiz questions.... Who creates this stuff?

Eric Turkheimer @ent3c.bsky.social · 5d

Ah, I am assigned a 1 hour training video this morning. I spend several hours a week doing training and compliance activities. At a university, of course, they don't come with a recommendation for what other activity I should NOT do. Implicit understanding is that I will do it over the weekend.

Reposted by Eric Turkheimer

Charles Driver @charlesdriver.bsky.social · 13d

Prepping for @dgps.bsky.social Methods, few recent papers pushing ctsem and dynamic models in interesting directions

#1 Developmental changes in twin cognitive correlation (ACE) across age, test instrument, zygosity, with @evangiangrande.bsky.social @ent3c.bsky.social et al

osf.io/preprints/ps...

Eric Turkheimer @ent3c.bsky.social · 16d

No argument from me. But: the knowledge contained in these PGS is, for now, far less specific than lead pipes. And my point here is to call out claims that modern IQ genomics is going to revolutionize social science (eg Plomin) or revolutionize society (eg The Bell Curve).

Eric Turkheimer @ent3c.bsky.social · 16d

Does anyone argue rare variants account for 10% of the variance for intelligence? They have large unstandardized effect sizes, by definition, but because they are rare they don't account for much variance.

Eric Turkheimer @ent3c.bsky.social · 16d

/ps If somehow twin studies never happened and we started here: among siblings, genes account for 10% of the variance at the most abstract level, and 2% on the ground, people would have shrugged and said, that sounds about right. The whole modern nature-nurture debate wouldn't have happened.

Eric Turkheimer @ent3c.bsky.social · 16d

The Y axis in Figure 2C is unsquared beta coefficients. Perhaps all this will prove useful for basic science, but the practical takeaway is that once non-causal confounds are cleared, we can't really predict human intelligence at anything approaching useful levels.

Eric Turkheimer @ent3c.bsky.social · 16d

This study of intelligence in the UK Biobank is typical of a lot of current social science genomics. Impressive technically, and not over-interpreted. But still, a main result gets lost in the sauce. Within-families, the direct-effect polygenic score explains no more that 1-3% of the variance. /1

Imputation of fluid intelligence scores reduces ascertainment bias and increases power for analyses of common and rare variants

Studying the genetics of measures of intelligence can help us understand the neurobiology of cognitive function and the aetiology of rare neurodevelopmental conditions. The largest previous genetic st...

www.researchsquare.com

Eric Turkheimer @ent3c.bsky.social · 19d

Unless you have a hypothesis about actual group based dynamics, which is possible but very difficult, then any effect on a group is just an additive combination of effects on individuals.

Eric Turkheimer @ent3c.bsky.social · 19d

Does the example of the island with a high incidence of Down's Syndrome help? If you are smarter than be because you carry variant X and I don't, then groups of people with higher frequency of X will be smarter than people who are !X. X either causes smart or it doesn't. (assuming no GxE).

Reposted by Eric Turkheimer

Sophie Bell @sophiebell.bsky.social · 20d

dornsife.usc.edu/news/stories...

What your DNA – and childhood – reveal about midlife brain health

Study of twins finds accelerated biological aging, amplified by early-life disadvantage, is linked to steeper IQ declines by midlife

dornsife.usc.edu

Reposted by Eric Turkheimer

Sophie Bell @sophiebell.bsky.social · 29d

Nice writeup on our paper that was recently published in Aging where we found second generation epigenetic clocks predicted cognitive decline in midlife in the Louisville Twins @ent3c.bsky.social @aging-us.bsky.social
www.psypost.org/biological-a...

Biological aging predicts midlife cognitive decline, especially in those raised in poverty

A new study using twin data indicates that accelerated biological aging predicts cognitive decline from childhood to midlife—especially for those raised in lower-income households. The research sheds ...

www.psypost.org

Eric Turkheimer @ent3c.bsky.social · Sep 2

In 2009, I wrote a comment about this with former APA President Diane Halpern. Unfortunately in 2009 we were still using the R word. Anyway, I would say in this case Antoni is mostly guilty of talking out his ass about something he doesn't understand, not exactly a surprise. /end

Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

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journals.sagepub.com

Eric Turkheimer @ent3c.bsky.social · Sep 2

The problem is that the effect isn't genetically symmetrical. There are no genes of large effect for high IQ on the X chromosome or anywhere else, so the same genetic mechanism can't apply. For high IQ, it is the usual undecipherable mix of polygenicity and environmental effects. /2

Eric Turkheimer @ent3c.bsky.social · Sep 2

At the risk of defending someone I have no interest in defending, this story is not as simple as it seems. It is an indisputable fact that there are more males at the very low end of the IQ distribution, because there are many rare X-linked syndromes that confer developmental disability. /1

Lauren Kaori Gurley @laurenkaorigurley.bsky.social · Sep 2

EJ Antoni, Trump’s pick to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics, shared a Darwinism-inspired theory about inherent differences between men and women's IQs during a talk to Heritage Foundation interns last year.

from @jacobbogage.bsky.social

www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...

Trump’s BLS nominee discussed controversial theory on gender IQ with interns

Trump’s nominee to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics, E.J. Antoni, discussed a controversial scientific theory on gender IQ differences with Heritage interns.

www.washingtonpost.com

Eric Turkheimer @ent3c.bsky.social · Aug 29

Protip to undergrads: if emailing my grad student Sophie about working in the lab, opening your email with "Hey, Sophia" is probably not the best approach.

Eric Turkheimer @ent3c.bsky.social · Aug 22

Link to story:

The Founders of This New Development Say You Must Be White to Live There

www.nytimes.com

Eric Turkheimer @ent3c.bsky.social · Aug 22

Just got around to reading the nytimes story about that racist community in Arkansas. As always, their ideology turns out be be based on perversions of genetics.

Eric Turkheimer @ent3c.bsky.social · Aug 19

Thinking about that long talk I posted yesterday, and how most people won't have the time to watch (neither would I). But I am on planes a lot looking for something to do. It would be cool to have a site where we could upload talks for people to download for watching offline during travel.