Dr Elsje van Bergen

DNA or parents’ reading: what predicts #dyslexia risk?

🧬 Polygenic score → 6%
🎓 Each parent’s education → 6%
📚 Parents' reading ability → 21%

PGS are informative, not diagnostic. Family phenotypes predict at least as much as DNA

Preprint: osf.io/preprints/ps...
21%: doi.org/10.1080/1088...

Really important point here from Elsje. It is crucial to include information about genetic/familial links when considering causes of disorders but lets not hype them as the ultimate solution.

Tagging co-author @lanniel.bsky.social &
my institutes @geneamsterdam.bsky.social @ntrbiopsy.bsky.social @unioslo-svfak.bsky.social

DNA or parents’ reading: what predicts #dyslexia risk?

🧬 Polygenic score → 6%
🎓 Each parent’s education → 6%
📚 Parents' reading ability → 21%

PGS are informative, not diagnostic. Family phenotypes predict at least as much as DNA

Preprint: osf.io/preprints/ps...
21%: doi.org/10.1080/1088...

📢 LEARN! seminar in Amsterdam
Genetics meets environment: twin studies & polygenic scores in learning and neurodiversity.

📅 12 Feb | 📍 VU Amsterdam | 🍷 drinks afterwards

All are very welcome! This marks me starting as Programme Leader Educational Neuroscience at LEARN!
@geneamsterdam.bsky.social

📢 LEARN! seminar in Amsterdam
Genetics meets environment: twin studies & polygenic scores in learning and neurodiversity.

📅 12 Feb | 📍 VU Amsterdam | 🍷 drinks afterwards

All are very welcome! This marks me starting as Programme Leader Educational Neuroscience at LEARN!
@geneamsterdam.bsky.social

Thanks everyone who attended the 4th annual #GENEAmsterdam meeting - we had a great time! Keep an eye out for the website and socials - more details on the day will be posted soon 👀 !

For now, a large thanks to Adrià Túnez Aquilué, Tessa Zonneveld and Aysu Okbay for this years organization.

New paper by PD student Bob Kapteijns (not on bsky) How do reading, math, and various cognitive skills "grow together" in early childhood? 🧠📚
osf.io/preprints/ps...

🎙️Out now: the first episode of the new @essgn.bsky.social podcast by @rafaelahlskog.bsky.social @aysuo.bsky.social, featuring @dr-appie.bsky.social

essgn.podbean.com/e/1-abdel-ab...

🎙️Thanks to @eugeniakis.bsky.social for the thoughtful conversation on her #podcast Psychology Inside Out.
open.spotify.com/episode/6Sxt...
@geneamsterdam.bsky.social @ntrbiopsy.bsky.social
(2/2)

People often ask me what I use to create my plots. I use mostly R, but I have to admit that I cheat a little bit with Adobe Illustrator 🧑🏽‍🎨

See slide show below for some of my edits 👇🏽

🎙️ #Podcast open.spotify.com/episode/6Sxt...

🧬 genetics shape differences — but are not destiny
🧠 dyslexia & ADHD often co-occur due to shared genes
👨‍👩‍👧 families pass on both genes and environments
🎓 better science → fairer education & mental-health support
🧭 also reflects on non-linear academic paths

Bikes in snow deserve their own appreciation 🚲☃️

📍Randwijck, Amstelveen

#Netherlands #snow #cycling #winter #sneeuw #fiets

Lectured in the morning, snow-play with the kids in the afternoon.

📍Amsterdamse Bos

#worklifebalance #academiclife #Netherlands #snow #cycling #winter #fietsen

Unusually white #Amsterdam this week ❄️
Slippery cycling, but incredibly beautiful.

📍Kalfjeslaan

#winter #snow #sneeuw #Netherlands #cycling #fietsen

Snowy start to our Grant Writing & Science Communication course ☃️
Despite slippery roads, students showed up. After class, campus turned into a winter playground. Grown-ups can still play!

Proud of our students. Grateful to teach the next generation of scientists.

🔗 vu.nl/genes

#rmGBH #SciComm

(2/2) 🎉 Proud supervisor moment: congratulations @josefina-bernardo.bsky.social on her 1st PhD paper! With @charlottepahnke.bsky.social @ntrbiopsy.bsky.social @geneamsterdam.bsky.social @ibbamsterdam.bsky.social
#ERC #BehaviourGenetics #GeneEnvironmentInterplay #DevelopmentalScience #PhDSupervision

The Power to Resolve Cultural Transmission and Sibling Interaction Using Polygenic Scores - Behavior Genetics In the classical twin design, the assumption that the additive genetic (A) and shared environment (C) variance components are uncorrelated may not hold. If there is positive AC covariance, the C compo...

🧠 Parents and siblings shape children’s environments— but families also share genes
🧬 Because genes influence behaviour, environments are partly shaped by genetics too

To separate genetic from environmental influences, we need genetic data from both parents and siblings 🧪

🔗 doi.org/10.1007/s105...

🎙️Thanks to @eugeniakis.bsky.social for the thoughtful conversation on her #podcast Psychology Inside Out.
open.spotify.com/episode/6Sxt...
@geneamsterdam.bsky.social @ntrbiopsy.bsky.social
(2/2)

🎙️ #Podcast open.spotify.com/episode/6Sxt...

🧬 genetics shape differences — but are not destiny
🧠 dyslexia & ADHD often co-occur due to shared genes
👨‍👩‍👧 families pass on both genes and environments
🎓 better science → fairer education & mental-health support
🧭 also reflects on non-linear academic paths

(2/2) 🎉 Proud supervisor moment: congratulations @josefina-bernardo.bsky.social on her 1st PhD paper! With @charlottepahnke.bsky.social @ntrbiopsy.bsky.social @geneamsterdam.bsky.social @ibbamsterdam.bsky.social
#ERC #BehaviourGenetics #GeneEnvironmentInterplay #DevelopmentalScience #PhDSupervision

The Power to Resolve Cultural Transmission and Sibling Interaction Using Polygenic Scores - Behavior Genetics In the classical twin design, the assumption that the additive genetic (A) and shared environment (C) variance components are uncorrelated may not hold. If there is positive AC covariance, the C compo...

🧠 Parents and siblings shape children’s environments— but families also share genes
🧬 Because genes influence behaviour, environments are partly shaped by genetics too

To separate genetic from environmental influences, we need genetic data from both parents and siblings 🧪

🔗 doi.org/10.1007/s105...

This day 44 years ago I was born.
Grateful to do science like a grown-up — and still play like a 14-year-old. 🎂✨

Professionally, this sabbatical year was a gift.

Grateful to PROMENTA (@eivindy.bsky.social @unioslo-svfak.bsky.social) and CREATE (@melbylervag.bsky.social @unioslo-uv.bsky.social) at the University of Oslo for hosting me so generously, and to the many dear collaborators across Oslo.

(3/5)

Above all, I’m grateful to my family — for doing this together. My husband Yves Rezus also had a great sabbatical year at OsloMet.

This year reminded me how much science, parenting, and life benefit from movement:
across countries, disciplines, communities, and seasons. ✨

(5/5)

Grateful for mentoring my Amsterdam & Nijmegen team remotely, and for PhD trajectories crossing borders — @josefina-bernardo.bsky.social visiting from Amsterdam for 6 months at the NIPH, Britt starting at CREATE in Oslo. And for @madeliefkuijper.bsky.social & other team members for visiting
4/5

Professionally, this sabbatical year was a gift.

Grateful to PROMENTA (@eivindy.bsky.social @unioslo-svfak.bsky.social) and CREATE (@melbylervag.bsky.social @unioslo-uv.bsky.social) at the University of Oslo for hosting me so generously, and to the many dear collaborators across Oslo.

(3/5)

Between these two summers was a full Norwegian winter.

Learning the language. Trying to integrate. Making acrobatics friends. Weekends in off-grid cabins. Cycling year-round, with spiked tyres in winter. New family routines.

Living the dark months as fully as the light ones.

(2/5)

In the summer of 2024, we arrived in Oslo as a family for a sabbatical year.
This summer, we returned to Amsterdam.

I’m only reflecting now, because reflection takes time, and last week working in Oslo brought everything back.

If you live somewhere for exactly 1 year, every season counts. (1/5)

Honoured to be featured by the @jacobsfoundation.bsky.social Research Fellowship. Their support enables ambitious, cross-border science on how genetics and environments shape children’s learning & development. 🌍🧬
Work with other Fellows nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com/articles/s41...