Image via Wikipedia According to the authors of “Protective effect of CRHR1 gene variants on the development of adult depression following childhood maltreatment: replication and extension“ [PMID: 19736354], theirs is “the first instance of Genes x Environment research that stress has been ascertained by more than 1 study using the same instrument“. The gene they [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Emotion’
First ever replication of a GxE in psychiatric genetics
Posted in CRHR1, Uncategorized, tagged Add new tag, Depression, Development, Emotion, Genetics, Hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis, Major depressive disorder, Mental disorder, Mental health, Single-nucleotide polymorphism, Stress on April 6, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Sit quietly (with your genome) and discover yourself
Posted in default network, tagged Brain, Emotion, Functional magnetic resonance imaging, Mental health, Genetics, Research, Neural network, default network, default mode network, Meditation, Yoga, Heritability on March 28, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Image via Wikipedia This past friday, I attended my first meditation session at my new yoga school. I love this school and hope – someday – to make it through the full Ashtanga series and other sequences the instructors do. In the meantime, I found myself sitting on my folded up blanket, letting my mind [...]
Feeling good about feeling bad
Posted in 5HTT, tagged Book Reviews, Depression, Disorders, economics, Emotion, Genetics, Health care, Major depressive disorder, Mental health on March 26, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Just a pointer to a great book – The Loss of Sadness: How Psychiatry Transformed Normal Sorrow into Depressive Disorder by Allan V. Horwitz and Jerome C. Wakefield. Its an in-depth treatment on the many reasons and contexts in which we – quite naturally – feel sad and depressed and the way in which diagnostic [...]
Suffocation and the developmental continuity between childhood separation and panic disorder
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Biology, Cognition, Development, DSM, Emotion, fear, Genetics, Mental disorder, Mental health, panic disorder, parental loss, separation anxiety disorder, Stress, Twin 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 [...]
ASIC1a and the fear of drowning
Posted in ASIC1a, Amygdala, tagged Acid, Blood, Carbon dioxide, drowning, Emotion, fear, Gene expression, Ion channel, Mental health, PH on November 27, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Image by Sbrimbillina via Flickr Here’s a gene whose relationship to mental function is very straightforward. If you hold your breath, your blood pH falls (more CO2 leads to more free H+ protons dissolved in your blood stream). You also may become anxious, or worse if you are forced to hold your breath. How does [...]
Interview with Dr. Christina Barr
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Addiction, Depression, Development, Emotion, evolution, Genetics, Mental health, National Institutes of Health, Stress on October 6, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Image via Wikipedia Many thanks to Dr. Christina S. Barr from the National Institutes of Health/National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism-Laboratory of Clinical and Translational Studies, National Institutes of Health Animal Center for taking the time to comment on her team’s recent publication, “Functional CRH variation increases stress-induced alcohol consumption in primates” [doi:10.1073/pnas.0902863106] which [...]
Lowering the mutational load via the orbitofrontal cortex of a “mao”ri warrior ?
Posted in MAOA, Orbitofrontal cortex, tagged Emotion, Frontal lobe on June 8, 2009 | 2 Comments »
Image via Wikipedia Rare mutations that knock-out the function of monoamine oxidase a gene have long been known to give rise to developmental changes that increase the propensity of males to engage in aggressive behavior. The effects of so-called natural variants – that may slightly reduce or increase the amount of activity of the MAOA [...]
Can you find the left frontal uncinate fasciculus? 5HTT-LPR can
Posted in 5HTT, Amygdala, Cingulate cortex, White matter, tagged Emotion, Frontal lobe on June 3, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Image via Wikipedia One of the most well-studied genetic polymorphisms in the behavioral- psychiatric- cognitive-genetics area is the 5HTT-LPR, a short repeating sequence that mediates the transcriptional efficiency of the serotonin transporter. Given the wide-ranging effects of 5HTT on the developing and mature nervous system, it is perhaps not surprising that variation in 5HTT levels [...]
5HTT-LPR and the “framing effect” – framed, gamed, exploited
Posted in 5HTT, tagged economics, Emotion, Neuroeconomics on May 31, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Image via Wikipedia Shopaholics and political activists might want to take a look at Jonathan Roiser et al.‘s paper, “A Genetically Mediated Bias in Decision Making Driven by Failure of Amygdala Control” [doi:] as an early example of the nexus of “behavioral-neuro-economic-genetics” or “neuro-genetic-marketing” or “neuro-eco-geno” as it might (not) be called one day. In [...]
“A merry heart doeth good like a medicine” and other predictions of a polyvagal theory
Posted in Vagus, tagged Emotion, evolution on May 18, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Image via Wikipedia Recently, I’ve been reading Brian Boyd’s new book, On the Origin of Stories, – a lengthy work that relates human evolution to our creative processes. This line of inquiry is closely related to an interest in genetics and brain function, since links between genetic variation and brain function can be used as [...]
Facial expressions did not give away genetic risk for schizophrenia
Posted in Amygdala, DLPFC, Frontal cortex, tagged Emotion, Frontal lobe, Functional magnetic resonance imaging, Mental disorder, schizophrenia, Twin on March 13, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Image by ibiscus27 via Flickr One of the difficulties in understanding mental illness is that so many aspects of mental life can go awry – and its a challenge to understand what abnormalities are directly linked to causes and what abnormalities might be consequences or later ripples in a chain reaction of neural breakdown. Ideally, [...]
Gene expression divides coolest part of your brain into 4 parts
Posted in Cingulate cortex, GABA, Glutamate, acetylcholine, tagged Emotion, evolution, Gene expression, Major depressive disorder, Cingulate, AMPA, acetylcholine on January 8, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
OK, there’s not really a “coolest” part of the brain, but, some areas are pretty darn weird & wild. Consider the cingulate cortex (shown here). Electrical stimulation of the pACC region in humans can produce overwhelming fear – even a feeling that death is imminent – while stimulation of white matter tracts adjacent to area [...]
Brain biomarkers in action
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Emotion, Functional magnetic resonance imaging, rehabilitation on September 13, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Image by -kÇ- via Flickr Session 4 of our discussion group, “When Basic Neuroscience Meets Psych Rehab” will meet on Sept 25. This session will cover the topic of ‘affect labeling’ which is one strategy for managing one’s emotions. Did you know there are 3,000+ words you can choose from to describe your feelings ? [...]
Benevolent dictators have longer AVPR1a promoters
Posted in AVPR1a, G-protein, OTR, tagged Emotion, Monogamy on May 26, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Image via Wikipedia The small neuropeptides oxytocin (OT) and arginine-vasopressin (AVP) are well known for their influence on promoting warm-and-fuzzy social behaviors in mammals. The G-protein coupled OTR and AVPR1a receptors are also the subject of much research in this area – particularly AVPR1a – since it shows differences in brain expression in polygamous vs. [...]
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