Genetic and Extragenetic Variance In Motor Performance

Marisi, Dan Q.

doi:10.1017/s0001566000009685

Cited by 12 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 14 publications

(16 reference statements)

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“…Marisi [16], also showed decreases in heritability with practice on the pursuit rotor and, in addition, he found that the contribution of systematic environmental effects (E 2 ) increased as practice progressed, whereas error variance (e 2 ) remained relatively stable. Although these findings are in general accordance with McNemar [17], it should be noted that interpolation of the 30 min rest could have introduced confounding effects of reminiscence and warm-up decrement in the postrest results [1].…”

Section: Review Of Motor Skill Studiessupporting

confidence: 86%

“…An important study of the heritability of fine motor skill was that conducted by McNemar [17] who tested 47 MZ and 46 DZ pairs on five different tasks (pursuit rotor, arm steadiness, speed drill, spool packing, card sorting). He found consistently higher intrapair correlations for MZ than for DZ twins (0.71 to 0.95 vs 0.39 to 0.56).…”

Section: Review Of Motor Skill Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Heritability of Motor Skill

Williams

Gross

1980

Acta genet. med. gemellol.: twin res.

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A total of 22 monozygotic (MZ) and 41 dizygotic (DZ) twin pairs were given 72 trials on a stabilometer balance task over six days to study the extent of the genetic contribution to learning and performance of a gross motor skill. The expectations that interindividual differences would be less for the MZ than for the DZ twins and that intraindividual variability would not be different between the two groups were supported. Intraclass correlations were used to provide estimates for the proportions of total phenotypic variance accounted for by heritability (h2), systematic environmental variance (E2), and nonsystematic environmental effects (e2). Heritability was found to be low during the early stages of learning, before it increased to stabilize at approximately 65% for the remaining practice. E2 was highest during these early stages (24%), then declined quickly to stabilize at half that level. Error variance (e2) constituted the remaining variance. Learning profiles of the twin pairs were also analyzed, with a greater intrapair resemblance being found for the MZ twins. The present findings indicate that, for gross motor skills, there is considerable potential for influencing both the levels of performance (and learning) and the differences between individuals by judicious use of systematic environmental effects.

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Section: Review Of Motor Skill Studiessupporting

confidence: 86%

Section: Review Of Motor Skill Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Heritability of Motor Skill

Williams

Gross

1980

Acta genet. med. gemellol.: twin res.

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“…Marisi (20) found that the heritability for performance on a pursuit-rotor task decreased over 30 practice trials (from an initial 0.79 down to 0.35), in agreement with McNemar's early findings, back in 1933 (21), that exercise did not modify the degree of similarity of MZ co-twins but increased that of DZ co-twins, thus decreasing heritability estimates. On the other hand, Williams and Gross (34) showed that the heritability for a stabilometer task increased after a two-day practice (from 0.27 to 0.69), and remained close to this final level for the next four days.…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 83%

The Registry of Italian Twin Athletes (RITA): Background, design, and procedures,and twin data analysis on sport participation—An application to twin swimmers

Parisi¹,

Casini²,

Salvo³

et al. 2001

European Journal of Sport Science

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Aiming to contribute to a better understanding of the nature and characteristics of sport participation and of the factors underlying human performance and adaptation to physical exercise, this study involved (a) the establishment of a specialized twin registry, (b) a questionnaire study, and (c) testing sessions of top level athletes. The general design and procedures of the project are described. A Registry of Italian Twin Athletes (RITA) was developed through a collaborative effort involving 25 sports federations of the Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI). Out of a total of over 1,500,000 registered athletes, some 5,000 pairs of twins practicing sports such as track and field, swimming, tennis, fencing, and cycling, were tentatively identified. A basic questionnaire was devised to address general aspects as well as specific items related to the respondent's respective discipline, and a specific questionnaire was developed for each sport. As a basis for future studies, an application was conducted on the twins registered with the Swimming Federation. The data collected from the completed questionnaires of about 200 twin swimmers indicated a strong zygosity and sex effect on sport selection, with higher prevalence values for identical pairs and for males. The twins appeared to be taller than their counterparts in the general population, as appears to be true for swimmers in general. Both for anthropometry and basic swimming performance analysis, no zygosity effects were found, individual differences being presumably minimized by basic athletic selection factors. For possible genetic effects to be detected, specific and direct testing sessions on high-level performers should be undertaken. Key Points:• Twin research can substantially contribute to clarify the issue of genetic versus environmental determinants of the individual variability in physical exercise, adaptation, and performance, but large and representative samples are needed.• A population-based registry has been developed, involving over 4000 pairs of twin athletes from 25 sports federations. A questionnaire study has been designed to address general and specific items for each sport, and a first application has been conducted on 200 twin swimmers. Downloaded by [George Mason University] at 00:30 27 December 2014• The data indicate a strong zygosity and sex effect on sport selection, with higher prevalence values for identical pairs and males among the twin swimmers.• With respect to anthropometry, twin swimmers as a group are taller than their counterparts in the general population, as are swimmers in general. Possible zygosity effects are apparently minimized by the common athletic condition. • Individual differences in swimming performance and anthropometry being minimized by basic athletic selection factors, possible genetic effects may only be detected by specific and direct testing on high-level performers. IntroductionNotwithstanding remarkable progress in various areas of human and sports biology, relatively little is known about the res...

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“…A number of twin studies were conducted in the past on such aspects as sport participation, motor skills, and learning (Gedda, 1955(Gedda, , 1960Grebe, 1955;Kovar, 1975Kovar, , 1981Marisi, 1977;Sklad, 1972Sklad, , 1975Weiss, 1979), motor performance (Bouchard et al, 1986;Fagard et al, 1991;Klissouras, 1971), and response to training (Hamel et al, 1986;Proud'Homme et al, 1984;Saltin, 1969), but the determinants of motor performance are still far from clarified. In this context, the collection of a large representative series of twins who are also athletes with years of training, and the identification of top-level twin athletes to be studied directly in detail, can provide a unique resource for further research on such issues as heritability versus training in top-level performance, response to training programs, ages that can best be trained, functional adaptation, and so forth.…”

Section: Research Applicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%