To discover specific variants with relatively large effects on the human face, we have devised an approach to identifying facial features with high heritability. This is based on using twin data to estimate the additive genetic value of each point on a face, as provided by a 3D camera system. In addition, we have used the ethnic difference between East Asian and European faces as a further source of face genetic variation. We use principal components (PCs) analysis to provide a fine definition of the surface features of human faces around the eyes and of the profile, and chose upper and lower 10% extremes of the most heritable PCs for looking for genetic associations. Using this strategy for the analysis of 3D images of 1,832 unique volunteers from the well-characterized People of the British Isles study and 1,567 unique twin images from the TwinsUK cohort, together with genetic data for 500,000 SNPs, we have identified three specific genetic variants with notable effects on facial profiles and eyes.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 105. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 06 October 2026.
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#511,563
of 34,563,371 outputs
Outputs from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
#8,300
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Outputs of similar age
#8,992
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Outputs of similar age from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
#136
of 948 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 34,563,371 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 98th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 119,181 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 40.1. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 93% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 498,204 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 98% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 948 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done well, scoring higher than 85% of its contemporaries.
