The Minnesota Center for Twin and Family Research (or MCTFR) is a series of

behavioral genetic Behavioural genetics, also referred to as behaviour genetics, is a field of scientific research that uses genetic methods to investigate the nature and origins of individual differences in behaviour. While the name "behavioural genetics" co ...

longitudinal studies of families with twin or adoptive offspring conducted by researchers at the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

. It seeks to identify and characterize the genetic and environmental influences on the development of

psychological Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries between t ...

traits. Principal investigators include

Matt McGue Matt McGue is an American behavior geneticist and Regents Professor of psychology at the University of Minnesota, where he co-directs the Minnesota Center for Twin and Family Research. Career McGue received his B.A. in psychology (minor: mathe ...

William Iacono William George Iacono is an American psychologist known for his research using behavior genetic methodologies, such as twin and adoption studies, to study the development of common mental disorders and substance abuse. He has also researched th ...

, and Kevin Haroian.

Cohorts

The primary cohorts of participants include the Minnesota Twin Family Study, Sibling Interaction and Behavior Study, Minnesota Twin Registry, and a variety of other cohorts of participants.

Minnesota Twin Family Study

MTFS is a twin study established in June 1989 with 1300 same-gendered twin pairs age 11 or 17, with an additional cohort of 500 such pairs recruited around 2004. Twins were born between 1972 and 2000. All twins born in Minnesota at that time were eligible to participate using birth registry data. Both identical and fraternal twins share certain aspects of their environment. This allows researchers to estimate the relative impact of environmental and genetic influences on

phenotype In genetics, the phenotype () is the set of observable characteristics or traits of an organism. The term covers the organism's morphology or physical form and structure, its developmental processes, its biochemical and physiological proper ...

s. The focus of the MTFS is on behavioral phenotypes, such as academic outcomes, cognitive abilities, personality, and interests; family and social relationships; mental and physical health; physiological measurements. The assessment wave structure and protocol are similar to the Sibling Interaction and Behavior Study (below), allowing the use of complementary twin and adoption designs to address

questions.

Minnesota Twin Registry

The Minnesota Twin Registry was established in 1983. Its original goal was to establish a

registry Registry may refer to: Computing * Container registry, an operating-system-level virtualization registry * Domain name registry, a database of top-level internet domain names * Local Internet registry * Metadata registry, information system for re ...

of all twins born in Minnesota from 1936 to 1955 to be used for psychological research. Recently, it has added twins born between 1961 and 1964. It primarily conducts personality and interests tests with its 8,000+ twin pairs and family members via mail. From this project, it was able to confirm that twins and their families are representative of the population and that a poll of their opinions would be more accurate than polls in the newspaper.

Sibling Interaction and Behavior Study

The Sibling Interaction and Behavior Study (SIBS) is a study of >600 adoptive and non-adoptive families. The

adoption study Adoption studies are one of the classic research methods of behavioral genetics and are an effective technique for assessing the interconnections of genetic and environmental variables in the elicitation of human qualities such as intelligence (IQ) ...

design allows one to disentangle the environmental and genetic influences on a

, including psychological phenotypes. The assessment wave structure and protocol are similar to the Minnesota Twin Family Study, allowing the use of complementary study designs to answer a given question.

Other behavioral genetic studies at the University of Minnesota

Minnesota Study of Twins Reared Apart

The Minnesota Study of Twins Reared Apart was a twin study conducted at the University of Minnesota, independent of the Minnesota Center for Twin and Family Research. In 1979,

Thomas J. Bouchard Thomas J. Bouchard Jr. (born October 3, 1937) is an American psychologist known for his behavioral genetics studies of twins raised apart. He is professor emeritus of psychology and director of the Minnesota Center for Twin and Adoption Research ...

began to study twins who were separated at birth and reared in different families. He found that an identical twin reared away from his or her co-twin seems to have about an equal chance of being similar to the co-twin in terms of personality, interests, and attitudes as one who has been reared with his or her co-twin. Bouchard has said that these two twins happened to be unusually alike, while most twins show more differences: "There probably are genetic influences on almost all facets of human behavior, but the emphasis on the idiosyncratic characteristics is misleading. On average, identical twins raised separately are about 50 percent similar -- and that defeats the widespread belief that identical twins are carbon copies. Obviously, they are not. Each is a unique individual in his or her own right." Psychologist now refer to studies such as this as an Adoption Strategy. Partial funding for the study was obtained through a research grant from the Pioneer Fund. *

References

External links

Minnesota Center for Twin & Family Research
Genetics studies Twin studies University of Minnesota 1983 establishments in Minnesota