Intellectual level (IQ) in heterozygotes for phenylketonuria (PKU)

Summary There is a statistically significant difference in the IQ's of PKU and histidinemia parents. The difference is due entirely to the verbal part of the Hamburg-Wechsler test. There is no significant difference in performance. The heterozygous state of histidinemia does not seem to bear an intellectual (evolutionary) advantage, since the IQ's of histidinemia parents show the same distribution as a normal population. In early and mostly well-treated PKU patients, the same slight deficit in verbal IQ appears with increasing age (changing test methods). These patients, simultaneously tested at 4 years of age with the Bühler-Hetzer and Kramer tests, exhibit a statistically significant difference between the results in favor of the less verbal Bühler-Hetzer. Since heterozygots, for PKU never have elevated phenylalanine blood levels, and because tryosine deficiency as argued by others seems highly improbable, we believe that the PKU gene has a more direct action on (or in) at least certain ganglion cells, lowering the verbal IQ slightly, but significantly. This action is not reflected by phenylalanine increase in the extracellular space in heterozygots and is not abolished by dietary treatment in homozygous PKU patients. The major damage in PKU patients must be due to chronic phenylalanine poisoning, which deteriorates cells and/or functions on a much larger scale, because it can be easily prevented by decreasing the phenylalanine blood level with correct dietary treatment.