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Posts Tagged ‘Biology’

Inheritance of epigenetic change?

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on April 27, 2010 | 1 Comment »

Image via Wikipedia pointer to the NOVA program on epigenetics “Ghost in Your Genes” (YouTube link here).  Fantastic footage.  Great intro to epigenetics and so-called trans-generational effects and the inheritance of epigenetic marks – which, in some cases – are left by adverse or stressful experience.  A weird, wild, game-changing concept indeed – that my [...]

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Bigger genetic studies, more missing heritability

Posted in Chromosome structural variants, Intronic or repetitive sequences, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on April 5, 2010 | 1 Comment »

Twin studies have long suggested that genetic variation is a part of healthy and disordered mental life.  The problem however – some 10 years now since the full genome sequence era began – has been finding the actual genes that account for this heritability. It sounds simple on paper – just collect lots of folks [...]

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Photoperiod sensitive humans bloom much like spring flowers

Posted in Suprachiasmatic nucleus, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on March 17, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

Image by noahg. via Flickr If you’ve started to notice the arrival of spring blossoms, you may have wondered, “how do the blossoms know when its spring?“  Well, it turns out that its not the temperature, but rather, that plants sense the length of the day-light cycle in order to synchronize their  own life cycles [...]

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Suffocation and the developmental continuity between childhood separation and panic disorder

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 11, 2010 | 1 Comment »

Image by Corrie… via Flickr Coping with fear and anxiety is difficult.  At times when one’s life, livelihood or loved one’s are threatened, we naturally hightenen our senses and allocate our emotional and physical resources for conflict.  At times, when all is well, and resources, relationships and relaxation time are plentiful, we should unwind and [...]

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Thousands of genes together with thousands of resting-state nodes actually makes the genes-to-cognition problem LESS complex

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 7, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

DON’T tell the grant funding agencies, but, in at least one way, the effort to relate genetic variation to individual differences in cognitive function is a totally intractable waste of money. Let’s say we ask a population of folks to perform a task – perhaps a word memory task – and then we use neuroimaging [...]

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SLC1A1 SNPs as tiny deliveries on payment of big promise

Posted in SLC1A1, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on December 15, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

Image via Wikipedia In their forecast “The World in 2010” special issue, the Economist points to “The looming crisis in human genetics” wherein scientists will reluctantly acknowledge that, even with super-cheap genome sequencing tools, we may not soon understand how genetic variation contributes to complex illness.  The argument is a valid one to be sure, [...]

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Indulging my inner rat over a few drinks

Posted in ADH1C, Amygdala, CDH13, Caudate nucleus, GATA4, Striatum, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on November 16, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

Image by Scrunchleface via Flickr A recent GWAS study identified the 3′ region of the liver- (not brain) expressed PECR gene (rs7590720(G) and rs1344694(T)) on chromosome 2 as a risk factor for alcohol dependency.  These results, as reported by Treutlein et al., in “Genome-wide Association Study of Alcohol Dependence” were based on a population of [...]

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Interview with Dr. Garet Lahvis on genetic and animal models of empathy and social behavior

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , on November 14, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

Image by juanpol via Flickr It was a great pleasure to speak with Professor Garet Lahvis from the Department of Behavioral Neuroscience at the Oregon Health and Science University, and learn more about how the biology of empathy and social behaviors in general can be approached with animal models that are suitable for genetic studies.  [...]

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Nature meets nurture on BDNF promoter IV

Posted in BDNF, tagged , , , , , , , , , on October 5, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

According to Joseph LeDoux, “One of the most important contributions of modern neuroscience has been to show that the nature/nurture debate operates around a false dichotomy: the assumption that biology, on one hand, and lived experience, on the other, affect us in fundamentally different ways” (ref).  Indeed.  While I know not where the current debate [...]

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Getting to know my inner shark

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , on September 29, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

Am having a wonderful time reading, “Your Inner Fish” by Professor Neil Shubin – an exploration into the deep evolutionary roots of the human body.  Amazed to contemplate the embryonic structures known as the branchial arches, or gill arches – which we share with sharks! – and the role of the gcm2 gene that is [...]

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Epigenetic puppetmasters pull strings of cognitive development from a safe distance

Posted in HDACs, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on September 21, 2009 | 2 Comments »

Image by eugene via Flickr The homunculus (argument) is a pesky problem in cognitive science – a little guy who might suddenly appear when you propose a mechanism for decision making, spontaneous action or forethought  etc. – and would take credit for the origination of the neural impulse.  While there are many mechanistic models of [...]

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I express a multiple-handed Hindu goddess in my brain, therefore I am

Posted in Frontal cortex, Hippocampus, Kalirin, Rho GTPase, tagged , , , , , , , , , on September 15, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

Image via Wikipedia Joseph LeDoux‘s book, “Synaptic Self: How Our Brains Become Who We Are” opens with his recounting of an incidental glance at a t-shirt, “I don’t know, so maybe I’m not” (a play on Descartes’ “cogito ergo sum“) that prompted him to explore how our brain encodes memory and how that leads to [...]

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Mother Nature’s cruel love wrought in CRH promoter SNPs

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on September 11, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

Image by kodomut via Flickr For humans, there are few sights more heart-wrenching than an orphaned child (or any orphaned vertebrate for that matter).  Isolated, cold, unprotected, vulnerable – what could the cold, hard calculus of natural selection – “red in tooth and claw” – possibly have to offer these poor, vulnerable unfortunates? So I [...]

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White-matter correlates of gene penetrance reveal key brain circuits for dystonia

Posted in Cerebellum, Motor cortex, Thalamus, Thap1, Torsin A, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on August 14, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

Image via Wikipedia Within the genetic news flow, there is often, and rightly so, much celebration when a gene for a disease is identified.  This is indeed an important first step, but often, the slogging from that point to a treatment – and the many small breakthroughs along the way – can go unnoticed. One [...]

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echoblog: Are there more genes associated with schizophrenia than there are genes (in the human genome)?

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on August 11, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

Image by PhotoJonny via Flickr pointer to: Daniel MacArthur and Neil Walker’s (@ Genetic Future bog) in-depth coverage of various critiques on the recent back-to-back-to-back Nature magazine trifecta (covered here) on GWAS results for schizophrenia.  Rough going for the global corsortia and a major f**king bummer for folks like myself who have been hoping that [...]

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Human brain looks the other way while ancient genomes romp and play

Posted in Intronic or repetitive sequences, tagged , , , , , , , , on August 8, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

Image by Kevin Steele via Flickr For more than a decade, we’ve known that at least 95% of the human genome is junk – or junque – if you’re offended by the thought that “you” emerged from a single cell whose genome is mostly a vast pile of crap – or crappe – if you [...]

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6p21-22 linkage seems to confirm role of immune response in mental illness

Posted in MHC loci, tagged , , , , , , , , , on August 7, 2009 | 1 Comment »

Image via Wikipedia Its not often that Nature magazine publishes a triple-back-to-back-to-back, so take note if you’re interested in the genetics of mental illness. The 3 papers – [doi:10.1038/nature08185] involving 3,322 individuals with schizophrenia and 3,587 controls, [doi:10.1038/nature08186] 4,999 cases and 15,555 controls and [doi:10.1038/nature08192] 8,008 cases and 19,077 controls – are as massive and [...]

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Multimodal imaging reveals consistent role for genes as mediators of circuit structure/function

Posted in 5HTT, DARPP32, DLPFC, Dopamine, Frontal cortex, MAOA, tagged , , , , , , , on July 31, 2009 | 1 Comment »

Image by quapan via Flickr Amidst a steady flow of upbeat research news in the behavioral-genetics literature, there are many inconvenient, uncomfortable, party-pooping sentiments that are more often left unspoken.  I mean, its a big jump – from gene to behavior – and just too easy to spoil the mood by reminding your colleagues that, [...]

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SNORD115 confirms autism risk in 15q11-13 duplication mouse model

Posted in 5HTT, SNORD115, SNRPN, UBE3A, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on July 21, 2009 | 1 Comment »

Image via Wikipedia One way to organize the great and growing body of research into autism is via a sort-of  ‘top-down’ vs. ‘bottom-up’ perspective.  From the ‘top-down’ one can read observational research that carefully catalogs the many & varied social and cognitive attributes that are associated with autism.  Often times, these behavioral studies are coupled [...]

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