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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Holocene selection for variants associated with cognitive ability: Comparing ancient and modern genomes

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ABSTRACTHuman populations living in Eurasia during the Holocene experienced considerable microevolutionary change. It has been predicted that the transition of Holocene populations into agrarianism and urbanization brought about culture-gene coevolution that favoured via directional selection genetic variants associated with higher general cognitive ability (GCA). To examine whether GCA might have risen during the Holocene, we compare a sample of 99 ancient Eurasian genomes (ranging from 4.56 to 1.21 kyr BP) with a sample of 503 modern European genomes, using three different cognitive polygenic scores. Significant differences favouring the modern genomes were found for all three polygenic scores (Odds Ratios=0.92,p=0.037; 0.81,p=0.001 and 0.81,p=0.02). Furthermore, a significant increase in positive allele count over 3.25 kyr was found using a subsample of 66 ancient genomes (r=0.217,pone-taiied=0.04).These observations are consistent with the expectation that GCA rose during the Holocene.