Epigenetic g predicts cognitive function in a diverse, nationally representative sample of older adults
Jessica D. Faul, Stacey Collins, Trey Smith, Eric T. Klopack, Colter Mitchell, Eileen M. Crimmins, Mateo P. Farina · 2026
Read Epigenetic g predicts cognitive function in a diverse, nationally representative sample of older adults by Jessica D. Faul, Stacey Collins, Trey Smith, Eric T. Klopack, Colter Mitchell, Eileen M. Crimmins, Mateo P. Farina (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-13321593.txt.
Description
Jessica Faul leads a team of seven authors testing whether a DNA-methylation score of general cognitive ability holds up in a genuinely diverse older population. Existing epigenetic aging clocks predict health risk but were not built for cognition. Epigenetic g was derived from a Scottish cohort, raising fair questions about transportability. Their data come from the Health and Retirement Study's twenty sixteen blood study: over thirty-five hundred Americans aged fifty-one and up with quality methylation data.
Cognition was measured by a telephone interview battery across waves, and models adjusted stepwise for demographics, education, parental education, the APOE risk gene, and blood markers of neurodegeneration. The paper asks whether a molecular shadow of intelligence survives that gauntlet in the population the United States actually has.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Jessica D. Faul, Stacey Collins, Trey Smith, Eric T. Klopack, Colter Mitchell, Eileen M. Crimmins, Mateo P. Farina |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 46 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |