Image by Smeerch via Flickr As far as science movies go, the new movie, “To Age or Not To Age” seems like a lot of fun. The interview with Dr. Leonard Guarente suggests that the sirtuin genes play a starring role in the film. Certainly, an NAD+ dependent histone deacetylase – makes for a sexy [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Gene expression’
Movie star SIRT1 makes for a great body but an old brain
Posted in CREB, SIRT1, tagged aging, Aubrey de Grey, Brain, Chromosome, Development, Epigenetics, Gene expression, histone acetylation, synaptic plasticity on July 20, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Intronic risk – where Mother Nature meets Mother Nurture
Posted in Intronic or repetitive sequences, tagged Epigenetics, Gene expression, Stress on July 19, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Image via Wikipedia The current buzz about about GWAS and longevity and GWAS in general has stirred up many longstanding inconvenient issues that arise when trying to interpret the results of very large, expensive and worthwhile genetic studies. Its seems that Mother Nature does not give up her secrets without a fight. One of the [...]
Inheritance of epigenetic change?
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Add new tag, Biology, Epigenetics, Gene expression, NOVA 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 [...]
Don’t ask what the genes for Prader-Willi syndrome do, ask where
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Brain, Conditions and Diseases, Development, Epigenetics, Frontal lobe, Gene expression, Genomic imprinting, Mutation, Prader-Willi syndrome, visual system, Williams Syndrome on April 8, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Image by Si1very via Flickr In an earlier post on Williams Syndrome, we delved into the notion that sometimes a genetic variant can lead to enhanced function – such as certain social behaviors in the case of WS. A mechanism that is thought to underlie this phenomenon has to do with the way in which [...]
Genes in the brain are like genes in muscles
Posted in Basal Ganglia, Caudate nucleus, DAT, Dopamine, Putamen, Substantia nigra, Subthalamic nucleus, tagged ADHD, Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, Basal Ganglia, Brain, Cognition, Development, Frontal lobe, Gene expression, Genetic testing, Genetics, Health, inhibition, Mental disorder, Mental health, Neural network, Personalized medicine, Substantia nigra on March 5, 2010 | 1 Comment »
Image by theloushe via Flickr ** PODCAST accompanies this post** I have a little boy who loves to run and jump and scream and shout – a lot. And by this, I mean running – at full speed and smashing his head into my gut, jumping – off the couch onto my head, screaming – [...]
Semaphorins integrate the sweetness and development of our cortical 6-layer cake
Posted in RLN, SEMA(1-7), tagged Brain, cerebral cortex, Circuitry, Cognition, Development, economics, Frontal lobe, Gene expression, Mental disorder, Mental health, Messenger RNA, neural migration, Neuron, Prefrontal cortex, schizophrenia, Stem cell, University of Pittsburgh on January 26, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Image via Wikipedia For a great many reasons, research on mental illness is focused on the frontal cortex. Its just a small part of the brain, and certainly, many things can go wrong in other places during brain/cognitive development, but, it remains a robust finding, that when the frontal cortex is not working well, individuals [...]
rs4680 helps me tonically ponder the Burger King menu and phasically choose the least healthy items
Posted in COMT, Cingulate cortex, Frontal cortex, Hippocampus, tagged Brain, economics, Frontal lobe, Functional magnetic resonance imaging, Gene expression, Mental disorder, Mental health, Neuron, Parkinson's disease, Gene, Cognition, Neural network on January 20, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
One of the complexities in beginning to understand how genetic variation relates to cognitive function and behavior is that – unfortunately – there is no gene for “personality”, “anxiety”, “memory” or any other type of “this” or “that” trait. Most genes are expressed rather broadly across the entire brain’s cortical layers and subcortical systems. So, [...]
On the genetics of epigenetics (part un)
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged aging, Development, DNA, DNA methylation, Epigenetics, Gene, Gene expression, Genetic testing, histone, histone acetylation, Transcription factor, Twin on January 5, 2010 | 3 Comments »
Last year I dug a bit into the area of epigenetics (indexed here) and learned that the methylation (CH3) and acetylation (OCCH3) of genomic DNA & histones, respectively, can have dramatic effects on the structure of DNA and its accessibility to transcription factors – and hence – gene expression. Many of the papers I covered [...]
Epigenetics and cognitive development – quick sketch overview
Posted in BDNF, MECP2, tagged Art, autism, Development, Epigenetics, Gene expression, schizophrenia, synaptogenesis, Stress, Anxiety, meme-art, Gene, Cognition, Rett Syndrome, MECP2, Transcription, cognitive development on December 16, 2009 | 2 Comments »
Some quick sketches that might help put the fast-growing epigenetics and cognitive development literature into context. Visit the University of Utah’s Epigenetics training site for more background! The genome is just the A,G,T,C bases that encode proteins and other mRNA molecules. The “epi”genome are various modification to the DNA – such as methylation (at C [...]
Epigenetic loss of an insensitive period of cognitive development
Posted in Hippocampus, Hypothalamus, NRXB1, tagged Brain, Bruce McEwen, Chemical synapse, Development, DNA, DNA methylation, Epigenetics, Gene expression, Health, Neural development, Rett Syndrome, Rockefeller University, Stress, synapse, synaptic plasticity on December 4, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
We are all familiar with the notion that genes are NOT destiny and that the development of an individual’s mind and body occur in a manner that is sensitive to the environment (e.g. children who eat lots of healthy food grow bigger and stronger than those who have little or no access to food). In [...]
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 [...]
Indulging my inner rat over a few drinks
Posted in ADH1C, Amygdala, CDH13, Caudate nucleus, GATA4, Striatum, tagged 23andMe, Addiction, Brain, Gene expression, Genetic testing, Mental disorder, Mental health, Personalized medicine, Biology, Genetics, Genome-wide association study, Alcoholism, Alcohol, GWAS 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 [...]
Know thy epigenome in fatal purpose of the Heart
Posted in Cerebellum, Frontal cortex, NTRK2, tagged Depression, Development, DNA methylation, Epigenetics, Frontal lobe, Gene expression, Mental disorder, Mental health, Suicide on November 11, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Image by sludgegulper via Flickr Few events are as hard to understand as the loss of a loved one to suicide – a fatal confluence of factors that are oft scrutinized – but whose analysis can provide little comfort to family and friends. To me, one frightening and vexing aspect of what is known about [...]
Development of autism vs. schizophrenia depends on a mere 600 kilobases of DNA on chromosome 16
Posted in Chromosome structural variants, tagged autism, Bipolar disorder, Brain, Development, DNA, Gene expression, Mental disorder, Mental health, Mood, schizophrenia on October 27, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Image via Wikipedia File this story under “the more you know, the more you don’t know” or simply under “WTF!“ The new paper, “Microduplications of 16p11.2 are associated with schizophrenia” [doi:10.1038/ng.474] reveals that a short stretch of DNA on chromosome 16p11.2 is – very rarely – duplicated and – more rarely – deleted. In an [...]
Interview with Dan Weinberger, M.D. on KCNH2 and schizophrenia
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Development, evolution, Frontal lobe, Gene expression, Genetic testing, Mental health, Podcast, schizophrenia on October 27, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Image by Oliver Lavery via Flickr Daniel R. Weinberger, M.D., Chief of the Clinical Brain Disorders Branch and Director of the Genes, Cognition and Psychosis Program, National Institute of Mental Health discusses the background, findings and general issues of genes and mental illness in this brief interview on his paper, “A primate-specific, brain isoform of [...]
Nature meets nurture on BDNF promoter IV
Posted in BDNF, tagged Development, Epigenetics, Gene expression, Neuron, BDNF, Biology, Genetics, Rett Syndrome, Michael Merzenich, CREB 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 [...]
Too much yin and not enough yang in cortical networks of MeCP2 mutant mice
Posted in MECP2, tagged autism, Development, Epigenetics, Gene, Gene expression, Long-Term Potentiation, MECP2, Mental disorder, Mental health, Mental retardation, Neural network, Neuron, Rett Syndrome on September 30, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Image via Wikipedia In previous posts, we have explored some of the basic molecular (de-repression of chromatin structure) and cellular (excess synaptogenesis) consequences of mutations in the MeCP2 gene – a.k.a the gene whose loss of function gives rise to Rett syndrome. One of the more difficult aspects of understanding how a mutation in a [...]
resourceblog: Understanding the molecular basis of cognitive and social impairment in the autism spectrum disorders
Posted in HDACs, MECP2, tagged autism, Autism spectrum, Development, DNA, DNA methylation, Epigenetics, Gene, Gene expression, HDAC, Mental disorder, Mental health, Mutation, Rett Syndrome on September 24, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Image via Wikipedia The cognitive and emotional impairments in the autism spectrum disorders can be difficult for parents and siblings to understand and cope with. Here are some graphics and videos that might assist in understanding how genetic mutations and epigenetic modifications can lead to various forms of social withdrawl commonly observed in the autism [...]
Epigenetic puppetmasters pull strings of cognitive development from a safe distance
Posted in HDACs, tagged autism, Biology, Development, DNA, Epigenetics, Gene, Gene expression, Genetics, Mental disorder, Mouse, Natural selection, Neural network, Rett Syndrome 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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