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, [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Gene’
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, Cognition, economics, Frontal lobe, Functional magnetic resonance imaging, Gene, Gene expression, Mental disorder, Mental health, Neural network, Neuron, Parkinson's disease on January 20, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
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 | 1 Comment »
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 Anxiety, Art, autism, Cognition, cognitive development, Development, Epigenetics, Gene, Gene expression, MECP2, meme-art, Rett Syndrome, schizophrenia, Stress, synaptogenesis, Transcription on December 16, 2009 | 1 Comment »
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 residues) [...]
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 »
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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 lowly [...]
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 »
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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 spectrum [...]
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 decision [...]
Mother Nature’s cruel love wrought in CRH promoter SNPs
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Biology, DNA, Gene, Genetics, Health, Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, Rhesus Macaque, Stress 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 wondered while [...]
Timing is everything – K+ channel bears the evidence across milliseconds and millenia
Posted in KCNH2, tagged 23andMe, Action potential, Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, Frontal lobe, Gene, Gene expression, Hippocampus, Neuron, schizophrenia, Single-nucleotide polymorphism on August 22, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
**PODCAST accompanies this post** In the brain, as in other aspects of life, timing is everything. On an intuitive level, its pretty clear, that, since neurons have to work together in widely distributed networks, they have a lot of incentive to talk to each other in a rhythmic, organized way. Think of a choir that [...]
White-matter correlates of gene penetrance reveal key brain circuits for dystonia
Posted in Cerebellum, Motor cortex, Thalamus, Thap1, Torsin A, tagged Biology, Development, Diffusion MRI, Disease, DNA, Dystonia, Gene, Genetics, Mental disorder, Mutation, White matter on August 14, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
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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 reason [...]
Human brain looks the other way while ancient genomes romp and play
Posted in Intronic or repetitive sequences, tagged Biology, DNA, DNA sequence, evolution, Gene, Genome, RNA, Stem cell, Transposon 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 insist. [...]
Multimodal imaging reveals consistent role for genes as mediators of circuit structure/function
Posted in 5HTT, DARPP32, DLPFC, Dopamine, Frontal cortex, MAOA, tagged Biology, Brain, Eukaryotic, Functional magnetic resonance imaging, Gene, Genetic diversity, Genetics, MAOA 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, “well, [...]
SNORD115 confirms autism risk in 15q11-13 duplication mouse model
Posted in 5HTT, SNORD115, SNRPN, UBE3A, tagged Angelman Syndrome, autism, Biology, Development, Epigenetics, Eukaryotic, Gene, Genetics, Genomic imprinting, Prader-Willi syndrome, RNA on July 21, 2009 | 1 Comment »
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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 with [...]
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