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Posts Tagged ‘Social Sciences’

My genes tell me that smokin’ and drinkin’ are sins

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , on February 9, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

Image by muffintoptn via Flickr Humans are spiritual creatures – there’s no denyin’.  How & why we got this way is one of THE BIG questions of all time.  Since our genome shapes the development of our brain and its interaction with our culture, its not a surprise to see that, from time to time, [...]

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Insights on emotional attachment found in pain gene (OPRM1) – poets everywhere say, “I told you so”

Posted in OPRM1, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on December 8, 2009 | 1 Comment »

Image via Wikipedia If you slam your hand in the car door and experience physical pain, medical science can offer you a “pain killer!“.  Certainly morphine (via its activation of the mu opioid receptor (OPRM1)) will make you feel a whole lot better.  However, if your boyfriend or girlfriend breaks up with you and you [...]

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Look deeply into my eyes and let me see your genes

Posted in OTR, OXTR, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on November 24, 2009 | 1 Comment »

*** PODCAST accompanies this post *** Nowadays, it seems that genomics is spreading beyond the rarefied realm of science and academia into the general, consumer-based popular culture.  Quelle surprise!?  Yes, the era of the personal genome is close at hand, even as present technology  provides – directly to the general consumer public – a  genome-wide [...]

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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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Which coisogenic mouse is more like Stuart Little?

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on November 6, 2009 | 1 Comment »

Image via Wikipedia ** podcast interview accompanies this post ** Lab mice have it pretty good I suppose.  Chow, water and mating ad libitum, fresh bedding, no predators.  Back in grad school, I usually handled my little mouse subjects gently so as not to frighten them and always followed the guidelines for humane treatment.  At [...]

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echoblog: Science and art interweave at Salk Institute Conference

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on September 24, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

Image by Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com via Flickr pointer to: Amazing conference exploring Evolutionary Origins of Art and Aesthetics. No genetics talks (this time ’round) but plenty of brain science pertaining to art and human nature.

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echoblog: Personality patternizer

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on September 17, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

With more and more genes being directly associated with personality or as moderators of correlations between personality and brain structure/function (here, here, here, here) it was fun to try out the latest online “big-5 personality profiler“. 10 mins of self-reflective fun.  My profile displayed at left.

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shameless book plug “The Genetics of Cognitive Neuroscience”

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , on August 7, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

Image via Wikipedia “B-b-book”? you say – as in words printed – on paper?  Yes, its a book, “The Genetics of Cognitive Neuroscience” for which my colleagues and I contributed chapter 5. Despite the 15th century medium, the collection of ideas and expertise assembled by the editors makes the book a great intoduction to this [...]

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New developmental clues on the function of COMT rs4680

Posted in COMT, Inferior frontal gyrus, Middle temporal gyrus, Superior temporal cortex, tagged , , , , , , , , , on August 7, 2009 | 2 Comments »

Image by Ethan Hein via Flickr Here’s a new addition to a rapidly growing list of findings for the valine-to-methionine substitution in the COMT gene (rs4680).  The paper, “Effects of the Val158Met catechol-O-methyltransferase polymorphism on cortical structure in children and adolescents” by Shaw and colleagues at the NIMH [doi:10.1038/mp.2008.121] finds that when genotype was used [...]

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Dopaminergic genes capture Keynes’ animal spirits in an uncertain world

Posted in COMT, DARPP32, DLPFC, DRD2, Dopamine, tagged , , , , , , , , , on July 29, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

In 1802, in a letter to then Secretary of the Treasury, Albert Gallatin, Thomas Jefferson warned that, “If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their money, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them (around the banks), will deprive the [...]

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Neural circuits for personality … genetic insight follows … marriages everywhere saved !

Posted in 5HTT, Amygdala, Cingulate cortex, DLPFC, MAOA, tagged , , , on November 22, 2008 | 1 Comment »

Image by cibomahto via Flickr A recent paper from Andreas Heinz and colleagues (doi: 10.1038/nn2222) provides more neuroimaging evidence in humans for a a circuit that regulates our responsivity to stimuli that evoke emotional responses.  The basic circuitry involves the amygdala (a place in the brain where emotional memories are registered), the prefrontal cortex (a [...]

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