Behavior Genetics
Gene Expression
Tag archives for Behavior Genetics
Doberman Pinscher with OCD
Posted by Razib Khan on January 23, 2010 In the wake of my post on selection and variation in dog skull shape, I thought it would be useful to point to this short paper, A canine chromosome 7 locus confers compulsive disorder susceptibility. Here’s the conclusion: The highly significant association of CCD with the CDH2 region on chromosome 7 is the first genetic…
Face recognition not correlated with IQ
Posted by Razib Khan on January 20, 2010 Heritability of the Specific Cognitive Ability of Face Perception: What makes one person socially insightful but mathematically challenged, and another musically gifted yet devoid of a sense of direction? Individual differences in general cognitive ability are thought to be mediated by “generalist genes” that affect many cognitive abilities similarly without specific genetic influences on particular…
Humans are naughty & nice by nature
Posted by Razib Khan on December 1, 2009 We May Be Born With an Urge to Help: What is the essence of human nature? Flawed, say many theologians. Vicious and addicted to warfare, wrote Hobbes. Selfish and in need of considerable improvement, think many parents. But biologists are beginning to form a generally sunnier view of humankind. Their conclusions are derived in part…
The genetics of schizophrenia
Posted by Razib Khan on August 17, 2009 Below I repeated the contention that while schizophrenia is a genuine biologically rooted behavioral disease which can not be cured through will, many forms of addiction are not. That is why the genetics of schizophrenia are of such great interest, if the biological pathways of the pathology can be elucidated presumably a cure may be…
Genetically profiling the brain: it all ends with dopamine
Posted by Razib Khan on July 23, 2009 Earlier today I linked to a Jonah Leher post on food that hooks into the role that dopamine plays in our decision making. Dopamine looms in the neuroscience angle of Jonah’s book How We Decide because the chemical’s role in cognition is established. Dopamine related genes are often fingered in behavior genetic studies as the…
The biological bases of behavioral variation
Posted by Razib Khan on July 18, 2009 Alex Tabarrok points me to a new paper on the effects of Toxoplasma gondii, Increased incidence of traffic accidents in Toxoplasma-infected military drivers and protective effect RhD molecule revealed by a large-scale prospective cohort study: We confirmed, using for the first time a prospective cohort study design, increased risk of traffic accidents in Toxoplasma-infected subjects…
Neurotypicals are irrational beasts
Posted by Razib Khan on June 29, 2009 Arnold Kling highlights this section from a Scientific American article, The Science of Economic Bubbles and Busts: But behavioral economics experiments routinely show that despite similar outcomes, people (and other primates) hate a loss more than they desire a gain, an evolutionary hand-me-down that encourages organisms to preserve food supplies or to weigh a situation…
Genes which promise more than they deliver
Posted by Razib Khan on June 17, 2009 Common problem with loci presumed to have psychological or behavioral effects, Report on Gene for Depression Is Now Faulted: The original finding, published in 2003, created a sensation among scientists and the public because it offered the first specific, plausible explanation of why some people bounce back after a stressful life event while others plunge…
MAOA and violence
Posted by Razib Khan on June 10, 2009 The locus MAOA pops up every year or so in a study which attempts to correlate variation in these region with behavior. In particular, anti-social or pathological behavior. So another one is out, Monoamine oxidase A genotype is associated with gang membership and weapon use: The low MAOA activity alleles conferred an increased risk of…
How We Decide, stuff happens in the brain
Posted by Razib Khan on May 13, 2009 When I found out a while back that Jonah Lehrer‘s next book was titled How We Decide, I knew I was going to check it out. It’s no coincidence that I recently reviewed Predictably Irrational, I blog because I’m interested in reducing the human animal down its basic units of organization. Due to my disciplinary…